Local police add Interpol to crime-fighting arsenal

The Royal Barbados Police Force is set to get a major boost in its crime fighting efforts from the International Police Organisation (Interpol).

This was revealed by Executive Director of Police Services at Interpol, Stephen Kavanagh, who said local and regional law enforcement agencies would benefit significantly from the establishment of an Interpol Liaison Office here.

Kavanagh said Interpol had large databases on firearms, drug importation and money laundering which would be made available to the RBPF.

“The reality is that in my time of policing the world has changed…Now digital footprints, data, are the ways that we will understand whether it is drug dealers, whether it is organized criminals, where those money launderers and child abusers are sitting, and we have the data to connect Barbados to Korea, from Korea to South Africa and that’s a unique opportunity and it’s an exciting one for the Royal Barbados Police Force and we want to help them be the very best and link into the Caribbean.

“We have data sets around firearms. We support around huge drug importation and movement of money as well and that data is all there to support investigations in Barbados and the wider partnership,” Kavanagh said during a signing agreement between Interpol and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr Jerome Walcott at the Ministry’s Office in Culloden Road, St Michael this morning.

“The reality is that whether you are the United States, UK, Barbados or China, you can’t have relationships with every country across the world, you can’t afford to. The great thing that Interpol can bring is that network…It allows us to stop trying to duplicate the training that takes place. Whether it’s the emerging cybercrimes that are taking place countries don’t need to replicate and develop their own training now. What they can do is use the global academy at Interpol.”

Dr Walcott lauded the fact that Interpol’s technical support would be made available to the RBPF.

He pointed to areas such as cyber security and artificial intelligence, which he said were at an “embryonic stage” in Barbados that would be brought into the “realm of crime investigation”.

“This will open a new area in terms of training, in terms of technical support, a new approach in terms of the new type of crime that you are dealing with. Traditionally in Barbados and throughout the region crime was just investigated; murder, burglaries, fraud, etc, but crime has now reached a new level not only using technology in terms of communication, but criminals can sit in Barbados and operate a network utilizing technology on the other side of the world. So, this certainly helps the police in terms of building their strength, the capacity, the resources, to utilize the technology that is available in the databases,” Dr Walcott said.

He explained that the Barbados Liaison Office for the Caribbean region represents a commitment made by Interpol in 2013, to develop collaborative efforts with the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) to underpin national and regional efforts to screen incoming passengers against Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents and other databases in light of the limited human and material resources available in the region for this purpose.

He revealed that the Interpol Liaison Office will support the 15 CARICOM Member States as well as the five CARICOM Associate Members of Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. The office will also service Aruba, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Puerto and Dutch St. Maarten.

The office will also complement Interpol’s Liaison Offices in Thailand and Austria.  (RB)