In a move designed to close ranks on emerging organized crime in the region, the world’s largest international police organization, Interpol, has signed an agreement with the Government of Barbados that allows for the opening of an Interpol liaison office there, and eventually the strengthening Caribbean police cooperation and security.
Guyana is one of a number of Caribbean countries which the new Interpol office will serve.
The establishment of an Interpol office in the region comes against the background of increasing concern over the surfeit of various types of crime, many of which have implications for the security of other countries.
Last Wednesday, Executive Director of Interpol Police Services Stephen Kavanagh signed the Host Country Agreement with Barbados’ Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Jerome Xavier Walcott. The Secretariat of Interpol’s Barbados regional headquarters will reportedly be located within the complex housing the Caribbean Community’s Implementation Agency for Crime and Security at its Barbados-based Joint Regional Communications Centre in St Michael, and will serve Caricom and the wider Caribbean.
Kavanagh is reported as saying at the signing ceremony that Interpol was “honoured that Caricom has provided us with this unique opportunity to support the Caribbean in its efforts to target transnational organized crime, protect its vulnerable communities, secure its cyber space and anticipate the threat of terrorism.
“The international characteristics of these crime areas and their links with organized crime groups around the world make the role of Interpol’s new liaison office in the Caribbean fundamental to maintaining national, regional and indeed global security.”
Vulnerability to transnational crimes, which flagrantly violate countries’ territories, exposing the chronic weaknesses of their respective domestic police and other security forces, has been a major challenge for the region where crime prevention resources are known to be both insufficient and fragile.
The objective is to nurture police cooperation between each of the 25 Caribbean countries and territories and increase their use of Interpol policing capabilities in their national and regional investigations,
The new Interpol Secretariat will allow for officers seconded by the various Caribbean police forces, intelligence agencies, immigration, customs and defence institutions to staff the new liaison office and deliver Interpol operational support throughout the region, with a particular focus on capacity building and police operations.
One of the key functions of the liaison office will be to provide the region with hands-on access to the police services required to tackle regional crimes from a global angle. The new Interpol office will also deliver training courses across the region to ensure law enforcement is able to use Interpol’s global criminal databases and capabilities to their full capacity throughout investigations and border management operations.
