-Caribbean top cops
Caribbean police commissioners meeting in Jamaica last month agreed that firearms- enabled crime is an intractable problem in the region while pointing to the direct link it has with drug trafficking.
They underscored the lack of capacity in the region to detect the movement of illicit firearms noting that there is need to strengthen security at ports of entry by installing electronic scanners.
According to a press release from the group which was released by the Guyana Police Force Public Relations Depart-ment yesterday, the development of a Firearms Reduction Strategy by each member state is among the initiatives to be pursued by the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP), and a major part of the strategy will be collaboration between the police and the wider community to identify creative approaches to counter the growing drug culture.
Further, the top cops recommended the development of capacity to trace firearms and identify ballistics through the acquisition of a Regional Integrated Ballistics Identi-fication System.
The issue of DNA capacity was also addressed at the meeting and the commissioners agreed that there was need to harmonise arrangements in the interest of the further development of economies of scale to maximize the use of limited financial resources and to improve the turn around time in the production of analyst’s reports. Currently Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago have DNA capacity.
A range of issues were discussed at the AGM and these include school-based violence, intelligence capacity, transnational crimes and law enforcement and human rights.
