And with the break in gang violence - the government is also in no rush to acquire wiretapping technology.

The law enabling legal wiretaps was passed earlier this year - and on Friday the Reporter newspaper ran a headline making some extraordinary and disturbing claims: foremost among them that quote, "all calls, voice mails and text messages would be intercepted and stored for a period of two years, voice calls would be recorded electronically, and the Police will have the task of managing the database." End quote.

That's not just serious, that's sinister! And Louis Wade from Plus TV asked the Prime Minister if it is for real:

Louis Wade - Plus TV
"An article in the Reporter, I think it was the front page article, in regards to privacy issues - telephone calls, text messages that would be recorded for two years overseen by the police, could you please-"

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"That's absolute nonsense; I don't know where the Reporter - anyway let me not be - that's nonsense. The Government, as you know, introduced a law that does provide for the listening in on phone conversations if the Government can get an order mandating that from the Supreme Court. The Government has not yet even procured the equipment that would allow it to do that, and there have been no applications made to the Supreme Court. So the Government is engaging in no such behavior. In terms of the Government, if we ever acquire the equipment, we will tell the public, and we will say to the public that applications would be made to the Supreme Court with respect those that are clearly in criminal lifestyle, if we felt that the occasion so warranted. The law was very carefully drafted; you have to prove to a judge that the person that you would want to wiretap, if we ever got there, is in fact a criminal, even though you can't catch him in the act, and there is not the kind of evidence that allows you to prosecute him. You have to satisfy a judge that all the conditions exist so that innocent, regular citizens would be completely protected."

And while calls will not be recorded, with the registration of phones, SMART's PR Representative did tell us that with the activation of section 44 of the Telecommunications Act 2002 they have to save information - including customers' personal records, their calling activities, their texting activities and so on.

Channel 7