Contract awarded for crime mapping

Citizens will very soon have access to a digital map showing areas prone to crime in Region Four and other related data, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said yesterday.

Harmon made the announcement during a post-Cabinet press briefing where he revealed that Cabinet had given its “no objection” to the award of a contract, worth US$78,750 (approximately $16.5 million) to Valrie Grant, a Geographic Information System (GIS) Consultant, for crime mapping. The contract was awarded under the Ministry of Public Security.

“This crime mapping consultancy will depict spatial (spread) of crimes in Region Four. The project will give serious crimes and geocode them… the occurrence of crime as per geographic locations and create communicative maps so that Guyanese citizens will be able to see [a] digital map that depicts where crimes are occurring based on crime data,” Harmon stated. He informed that this data will include the type of crime, date, time and location and said that the information will be displayed like Google Maps and other streets maps that are available on the internet.

In response to subsequent questions, Harmon said that the project will provide digital information so that citizens can actually get a visual display as to where crimes are being committed and the number of crimes by type that are being committed, so that they are in a better position to be informed as to what is happening and don’t have to actually wait on the Police Commissioner to make these reports. “You would have access to that in a real time way, that is the purpose of that consultancy,” he said.

The State Minister could not say how long the consultancy will last but pointed out that this information is contained in the details of the contract.

Grant, a businesswoman, is the owner of GeoTechVision and is the Chairperson of the Guyana Small Business Council.