PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo maintains that crime in the region cannot be solved by crafting regional organizations, rather the place where there will be greater impact on crime is in the domestic jurisdiction.
The Guyanese Head-of-State insists that there is a role for coordination, but it should be based on information flow through the offices of regional commissioners of police.
“This is what is needed rather that building regional bureaucracies to talk about crime,” the President noted.
“We set up a small one for World Cup Cricket then it morphed into a big regional bureaucracy with a whole range of initiatives, some of which may be useful, and then the last meeting we had they came to us and presented an administrative budget for US$30M per annum to be funded by a new tax on airlines, while everyone recognizes that the region has to reduce the cost of our tourism. This is a perfect example of what I am saying,” the president noted.
He said, “I made the point that to fund a regional bureaucracy, that is about as much as I spend on my entire police force.”
Jagdeo said that within each jurisdiction there is need for more and improved intelligence, counter-intelligence, better anti-crime capabilities, improved forensic capabilities, SWAT teams and similar initiatives.
The Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), at its Twenty-Second Meeting held in Nassau, The Bahamas, in July 2001, had raised concerns over the new forms of crime and violence that continue to pose threats to the region’s security. These latest types of crime were recognized as having implications for individual safety and the social and economic well-being of the region as a whole. The heads agreed to establish a Regional Task Force on Crime and Security to examine the major causes of crime and to recommend approaches to deal with the inter-related problems of crime, illicit drugs and firearms, as well as terrorism. The task force comprised representatives from each of the member states, the Regional Security System (RSS), the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police, the University of the West Indies (UWI), and the regional secretariats (CARICOM and the OECS).
In 2007, the Conference of Heads of Government took a decision which resulted in the Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre (RIFC) and Joint Regional Communications Centre (JRCC) becoming sub-agencies of IMPACS. The agency reports to CONSLE, while a management committee comprising permanent secretaries from a maximum of seven member states is responsible for general management (administration and finance) and oversight of IMPACS and its sub-agencies.
The agency is staffed by personnel from CARICOM member states, many of whom are serving or retired law enforcement, military and border security officers, dedicated to providing maximum support towards securing the region and ultimately individual CARICOM states.
Its mandate requires that it maintains a relationship with, and coordinate meetings of standing committees of commissioners of police, military chiefs, chiefs of immigration, comptrollers of customs and heads of intelligence and financial crimes investigation units. The agency maintains contact with Interpol via a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which has resulted in several dangerous regional and international criminals being arrested as they attempted to enter through the borders of member states.
There is also contact with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI and Scotland Yard, in the continuous fight against transnational organized crime.
But President Jagdeo believes the IMPACS needs to be examined carefully and asked the question, ‘what will happen to crime figures in each state if we are to close IMPACS?’
(GINA)