…And leaders briefed on crime prevention

Another major issue was crime and security in the region and its effect on youths. Today the ministers were given a presentation on the intelligence situation in the Caribbean and discussed crime prevention and mitigating measures such as the advanced passenger systems.

Patrick Manning
“What that does, it tracks in the region anybody who is of interest to security agencies. We are in that position to track such persons to move in the region, what they’re doing byway of travel, to keep tabs on them and to alert governments in due time as to who is likely to come into your own jurisdiction so that you can decide what actions you take in accordance with your own domestic legislation. On this question of crime and security is an agency that is called RIBBIN. It has to do with ballistic information. It is the Regional Integrated Ballistics Information Network. What that does, it makes technology available to governments in preventing crimes. In other words, what it does is it matches cartridges with bullets and the distinctive markings that you have on both are recorded by computer and matched and therefore in a short time—in minutes—you can determine if the bullet came from a particular cartridge and therefore the source, the gun from which it had come because the markings are also part of that. There are three countries in the region who have access to that information and this particular program is designed to make that technology available to all countries in the region. That was discussed and agreed upon in particular and there are other initiatives; one is the reinstitution of the regional witness protection program. That was on the cards and that is taking place.”

Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister, St. Kitts and Nevis
“One other area that I must mention that is of tremendous challenge to us and with regard to the involvement of our young people is crime and security because I brought to this meeting a proposal and a request for support for us in St. Kitts and Nevis for an international conference that we want to hold in May or June of this year looking particularly at gang violence and crime among young people within the Caribbean Community. There is no doubt that we are under tremendous challenge at this time within the Caribbean region. We do not manufacture guns, as far as I know, in the Caribbean community yet we continue to be impacted by the tremendous illegal flow of small arms into the region mainly because of our porous border and because I believe that this is involved in the continuing trade—international trade—involving guns and drugs generally which have been impacting our community negatively and thus now impacting young people who are becoming more and more involved in alien activity of gang culture and thus seeing more and more threats from gang violence and gang crime among young people in the Caribbean region.”