SINCE its introduction, readers would have recognized that the intention of this column has been to highlight different interventions by the Citizen Security Programme as part of the Government’s response to the increasing incidents and violent nature of crime that emerged during the first few years of the last decade.

This programme, carried out under the Ministry of Home Affairs with strong support from the Inter-American Development Bank, embraces a holistic approach in the quest to create a safer Guyana.
It is a multi-million-US-dollar programme that aims at addressing crime and violence in both the medium and long term by utilizing a combination of approaches, which include modern techniques and best practices.
A significant part of the effort has been the reform and modernisation of the Guyana Police Force, a key focus being, moving it from an incident-driven, reactive institution to a proactive one.
One must recognize that, ever so often, there are calls for the Police Force to reform, but here is real reform. It may not be visible to the public, but it is happening, and its impact would not be immediately felt in the way some would wish.
A major initiative of this reform has been the design, development and implementation of an Integrated Crime Information System (ICIS) principally to support the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Guyana Police Force in creating an enabling environment wherein comprehensive, up-to-date, crime-related information is readily available, and shared through the use of modern technology.
This is the first step in introducing information technology at this level. It begins at the police stations, forty-two so far, where all reports are taken electronically and instantly fed into the database of Police Headquarters and the Ministry.
What this has done is to provide real-time information for the security hierarchy, to allow for more informed decisions and analyses of patterns, etc. Information is also shared with other government agencies, and facilitates access to other existing databases which may possess information that provides a complete profile of perpetrators and victims.
This is integral to security operations in many parts of the world, especially in developed countries. One can get a glimpse of how it works and its efficiency in solving crimes by looking at a few episodes of NCIS.
The establishment of the ICIS has set the stage for an efficient and effective crime observatory having the capacity for spatial statistical analyses and geo-referenced mapping of crime and violence-related injuries; on-going surveillance systems for external causes of injuries and deaths, thereby facilitating the assessment of the impact of social programmes and interventions, as well as the need for more of such.
The CSP has also set the stage for such interventions. In the lives of the pilot programmes in the ten communities, the CSP has demonstrated that crime and violence-prevention programmes offer tremendous opportunities to combat crime and violence, and at the same time contribute positively to national development.
Access to information at this level is critical, and the establishment of the ICIS is vital to the many security challenges facing the country. ICIS provides the platform for addressing increasingly complicated and sophisticated situations, moreso given the nature of crime internally and its international connections.
On the face of it, the ICIS provides the environment for timely reporting and analysis of crime data, and the acquisition of vital intelligence for the security agencies. It is also an efficient mechanism for tracking dangerous criminals and persons of interest.
While there are reports that the ICIS is beginning to enhance the efficiency of the Force, indications are that it will be a major transformative factor on the modus operandi of the Guyana Police Force. While it may not be everything, it is a necessary investment, not only in the technology, but in human resources.
The next column will continue with  application of the ICIS and its collaboration in other areas.