Latest update February 2nd, 2026 12:59 AM
Feb 21, 2019 News
The Guyana Police Force has been quietly introducing drone technology into its crime-fighting arsenal. An official says that drones were introduced last year.
“We have been using drones for about a year now. It is a new technology and we are still in the learning stage. We don’t have the amount that I think we should have. We need drones at every police station. We have the technical competence to train the ranks.”
According to the official, drones can be used in practically every aspect of police work. Asked if there will be cas
es anytime soon of police using drones to round up criminal gangs, the source said “if the opportunity arises, we could very well see that.”
He said that the use of drone technology would have given the joint services the “aerial advantage” to locate the gangs that were often hiding out in coastal backlands during the crime wave. He also pointed out that drones were a much cheaper alternative to using a plane or other aircraft to conduct aerial surveillance.
Back in 2006, police had hired a plane in their bid to locate the hideout of ex-cop Neil Bovell, who had killed three people, and was abducting women and taking them into the Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara backlands.
Recent reports out of Trinidad indicate that the T&T Police Service (TTPS) has been successfully using drones in their operations.
According to a Trinidad Express story, the police service’s Special Operations Response Unit (SORT) used drone technology in the arrest of 20 persons and the seizure of firearms and quantities of ammunition and narcotics and a police jacket.
And a 2018 report stated that T&T police officers used a drone to capture two men who attempted to flee the scene of a shooting. The suspects had fled into a bushy area.
The officers contacted their colleagues in the TTPS’s Air Support Unit, who came to the scene with their drone referred to as “Dragonfly 3”. They launched the drone and managed to pinpoint the suspects’ location within minutes.
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