Does the Guyana Police Force have and use spy technology or not?

Nov 19, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

The vexed question is do the police in their crime fighting strategy and other activities have any spy equipment apart from the one they seized from convicted felon Roger Khan and Safe City – The Guyana Police Command Centre. Information from the Annual Police Officers’ Conference is that Safe City will replace ‘boots on the ground.’ Wow! My understanding is that the seized spy equipment was subsequently delivered to the Head of the Presidential Secretariat.

A few months ago Dion Bascom, a police sergeant, made some damnable allegations against a few members of the Criminal Investigation Department as it relates to the investigation of the execution of Ricardo Fagundes called ‘Paper Shorts’ outside of Palm Court Night Club, Main Street Georgetown on March 2021; alleged cover- up; the payment of Guyana $30M to a senior member of the Major Crime Unit to bury the investigation of the murder; and corruption by top members of the CID. Among other issues and concerns posited by Bascom is that he witnessed the operation of a laptop computer at the scene of the crime. He stated that the output from the computer revealed that the police were able to locate the prime suspect, telephone calls he made to others before and after the murder of Paper Shorts.

With Usain Bolt-like speed Top Cop, Clifton Hicken and Head of the Criminal Investigation Department Wendell Blanhum held a news conference apparently ordered by their political boss. Blanhum is reported in the press as saying that the Force is not in possession of any device or technology that would make such revelations as indicated by Bascom, and that the technology does not exist anywhere in the world. Perhaps, Blanhum was too young in the job to recall when Winston Felix was performing the duties of Commissioner of Police in the absence of Commissioner Floyd McDonald the police seized a laptop computer from Roger Khan that can reveal data mentioned by Bascom and even more. Also, there was the bugging of the telephone of Commissioner, Winston Felix.

Based on Blanhum’s posture am I to wonder whether or not the police are not updated with modern crime fighting technology or is a technological dinosaur. No wonder there are so many indictable unsolved crimes including murders. Guyana has excellent diplomatic and other relationships with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Infact, Guyana is programmed to set up a Saudi Office. Recently, Vice President Bharat Jagdeo signed a Cyber Crime Agreement with EAU. The details of the agreement were not made public.

Let me be pellucid, I do not have any hard evidence that Pegasus is operating here by the police, the government or private individuals in crime fighting or other activities. I have my suspicions. Many talkshow hosts particularly those on the other side of the political divide and other persons complain bitterly about unusual interferences with their programmes and phones. I am experiencing some unexplained disruptions and insertions. Pegasus, although very expensive, can be acquired with the assistance of wealthy oil producing friends from the East. The use of Pegasus and other similar equipment in Guyana should not be overlooked.There are many crime fighting modules apart from Pegasus that can be employed in the fight to reduce crime. CompStat is a good example. It is a computerisation and quantification programme used with variations by police departments across the world. It drastically reduced crime in New York. I commend it to the GPFwith variations. Free advice.

Yours faithfully,

Clinton Conway

Assistant Commissioner of Police

(Retired)

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