Technical Capabilities of Intelligence Services to be Enhanced – Dr. Phillips

National Security Minister, Dr. Peter Phillips has announced that the government would be spending some $350 million during the course of this fiscal year, to enhance the technical capabilities of the security forces’ intelligence services.
This he said would be done through the acquisition of sophisticated and current technologies. Dr. Phillips, who was opening the 2006/07 Sectoral Debate in Gordon House on Tuesday (May 30), said the acquisition of these technologies was being done to counter the use of modern technologies that criminals utilized, and the intelligence operations they formed to carry out unlawful activities.
“The state must be able to stay at least a step ahead in our own intelligence capabilities if we are to gain the upper hand,” he stated.
Additionally, he said, the Ministry was moving to “implement one of the key recommendations of the National Security Strategy by establishing a National Strategic Intelligence, with appropriate civilian oversight, to collect and coordinate strategic intelligence, conduct threat and risk assessments, and provide input for the development of a National Intelligence Policy”.
Speaking further of technologies, Dr. Phillips said, “over the past year, we have made significant investments of nearly $1.3 billion for the acquisition of new technologies, which will significantly enhance the investigative and communication capacities of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).”
He referred to the Automated Palm and Finger Print Identification System (APFIS) which is now being installed and which will allow for the taking of fingerprints at scenes of crime and matching these electronically against existing data bases.
“As part of this contract, some 350,000 existing paper-based prints are being digitized and stored electronically,” Minister Phillips informed, noting that over the next three months, the JCF would be able to cross-match any new print against the digitized data-base.
In addition, the Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS) will allow the police to collect ballistic evidence at scenes of crime and match this against a database.
“With this new technology,” the Minister said, “we will be able to capture the unique identity of every firearm and any bullets from these weapons.”
A new radio system will also increase the ability of the police to communicate with each other anywhere across the island and will also have the capacity to transmit data and images from any location across the country.
The National Security Minister informed that in the current year, “we will be making additional investments to improve the forensic laboratory and Geography Information System (GIS) mapping and analysis capabilities for operational effectiveness.”
“Through the collaboration with the Ministry of Health we now have GIS mapping of all reported murders in the Kingston Metropolitan Region for the period 2000 to 2005.this will significantly aid our analysis of trends,” he added.