Data-driven project launched to help arrest scourge

Public security and transnational crime-fighting in Barbados and other Caribbean states are in line for a major boost under the CariSECURE Citizen Security programme.

On Tuesday, officials of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) joined forces with the Regional Security System (RSS) to officially launch the project in Bridgetown.

Designed to help reduce the level of youth involvement in crime and violence and cut the overall problem facing the region, officials said the CariSECURE Citizen Security project will help to gather and analyse data that should help countries shape policies and crime-fighting strategies to tackle the scourge.

This round of the data-driven crime prevention project, which is in its fifth year, will run until April 2022, and benefit Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis and Suriname.

Addressing the opening of a two-day CariSECURE Citizen Security conference on Tuesday, the outgoing Executive Director of the RSS Captain Errington Shurland said there were a number of factors currently compounding crime-fighting efforts in the region.

“COVID-19 and the countermeasures implemented to address this public health threat not only impacted transnational and trans-regional threat vectors, but also the commission of other localized crime. With the altered conditions of criminality in the region, it is imperative that as a region we identify and respond to the changing national, regional and trans-regional trends,” he warned.

“If we are, to be honest in our assessment of our criminogenic environments I am sure that you would all agree that we have experienced an emergence in nontraditional security threats such as global warming, global health pandemics and cyber attacks.

In addition, it is very possible that these structural shifts in our security environment also interface with other risks and protective factors that further compound the issues of crime and violence,” said Shurland.

He warned that the relationship between traditional and non-traditional did not fit into the “neat, discreet” boxes of 20th-century organisational charts on crime.

Additionally, Shurland pointed out that the seven beneficiary states of the programme did not have copious financial or natural resources. However, he added, they understood clearly that the efficient dismantling of criminal networks requires an acute understanding of the nature of threats and risks, and how they interact with social, economic, political, environmental and technological factors.

“This understanding will undoubtedly inform decisions on the most effective multisectoral deployment of our limited resources. It is not that we are unaware of the dictates of our security environments. We, however, need to understand the extent of the impact of these threats as well as the factors of causation,” he said.

During Tuesday’s official conference opening at the Paragon base in Christ Church, officials also officially introduced the Regional Crime Observatory, which is expected to help improve the quality, timeliness and availability of crime data and analytics to support the OECS countries and Barbados.

Captain Shurland said he believed this crime observatory would help to strengthen the region’s ability to understand the driving forces behind criminal behaviours and identify opportunities to advance the protection of residents, countries, and maritime and cyberspaces.

Pointing out that the observatory has already procured software and other equipment to assist with crime analysis and mapping, Captain Shurland said it was important that regional law enforcement agencies, customs, and regulatory authorities make use of the data generated.

“It is only by greater cooperation, fuelled by cross-pollination and the effective sharing of intelligence that we can successfully identify the threats and risks which undermine societies we work so hard to build and nurture,” he said.

Linda Taglialatela, US Ambassador to Barbados and the OECS, said while she was pleased with crime-fighting efforts in the region, there was still a lot of work to be done to arrest the problem.

“I join you and our government partners in celebrating your efforts and achievements with the implementation of the digitalized police crime information system, but there is more work to be done to institutionalise data for decision-making,” she said.

Taglialatela reminded the audience that there were no shortcuts to fighting crime even as countries continued to face several hurdles including natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, global pandemics, tropical storms, or hurricanes.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)