U.S. Agrees to Fund Regional Intelligence System

The State Department of the United States has agreed to a proposal by the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP), to fund the setting up of a regional intelligence system that would serve as a database for information on criminal elements including drug traffickers and terrorists.
Police Commissioner Francis, Forbes, who made the announcement at the Rotary International conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay on May 7, said that the Regional Information and Intelligence Sharing System (RIISS), to be implemented in the 24-member states of the ACCP, would be a “model system for the world, that will link directly into Interpol’s new I-24/7 system”.
He explained that RIISS was designed to share information through a “pointer system concept”, which would indicate to law enforcement officers, where they could find information on particular individuals. Commissioner Forbes indicated that recent tests carried out on the system had allowed law enforcement officers to capture two wanted criminals who were onboard a cargo ship as crew.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police said that terrorism, drugs and the growing relationship between politics and drugs, posed the most serious threats to security in the Caribbean and must be given earnest attention.
Mr. Forbes called on the business community to become more involved in law enforcement efforts, while making a plea for governments across the region to view drug dealers as threats to national security and as such, to revisit legislation to ensure that profits of convicted druggists were not only confiscated, but were made available to law enforcement to improve their capacity in the fight against the drug trade.
He decried what he described as a move on the part of drug smugglers to form strategic alliances with some politicians in the region and called for appropriate mechanisms to be put in place to ensure that candidates up for election were free from corruption. “This is a wake up call for countries to take steps to ensure that candidates for election get a free bill of health and that there is an established mechanism to effectively scrutinise campaign funding at every level,” he stated.
“Crime is already being influenced by drugs at the community level. Let us not allow it to extend its tentacles further into the political structure. The time to act is now. All that is required is the will of those who possess the capacity of moral suasion and political influence”, the Police Commissioner said further.