“Merciless, terrifying and frighteningly magnified,” this is how Jamaica’s Minister of National Security described the crime situation facing CARICOM today. Senator The Honorable Colonel Trevor MacMillan made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 12th Joint Meeting of the CARICOM Standing Committees of Commissioners of Police and Military Chiefs, currently underway at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ocho Rios Jamaica.

The Minister called on Member States represented and Regional Authorities to keep security high on the agenda, despite severe resource constraints imposed by the world economic crisis. “Funds are short and are likely to be short for sometime to come as budgetary cuts are inevitable due to the likelihood of dwindling revenues to Governments’ coffers,” Minister MacMillan said.

High level delegations from Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, The Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago listened intently as the Minister explained the paradox, that while our security forces would be affected by the realities which confronted us, it was on they whom we would have to rely to wrestle with the domestic security problems that mounted daily.

The two-day Meeting is coordinated and facilitated by the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security. The Agency’s Executive Director Ms Lynne Anne Williams, paid tribute to the Government and People of Jamaica, acknowledging both Jamaica’s role in hosting the meeting, and its continued commitment to collective anti-crime action in the face of global economic uncertainties.

Ms Williams highlighted the importance of this to the current reality saying, that the traditional nation based approaches of the past were unequal to the most pressing challenges of the present. On the matter of the meeting’s agenda Ms. Williams indicated that delegates would discuss a range of issues critical to regional security, stemming from commitments made in April last year in Trinidad and Tobago, during the 13th Special Meeting of Heads of Government including, Improved information and intelligence sharing initiatives, Small Arms and Light Weapons reduction initiatives, the development and implementation of the Regional Integrated Ballistics Information Network, the development of a regional forensics capacity and the development of a Human Resource Data-base for Law Enforcement.

An in-depth discussion and analysis of the current security environment in Haiti and its consequent impact on neighboring CARICOM Member States was also included on the programme.

Chief of Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force, Major General Stewart Saunders welcomed delegates to Jamaica. The opening ceremony was chaired by former Jamaican Commissioner of Police now the director of IMPACS Liaison Office Mr. Francis Forbes. The meeting which continues tomorrow is being chaired jointly by Colonel Alvin Quintyne Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force and Chair of the Standing Committee of Military Chiefs along with Commissioner Hardley Lewin of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, interim Chair of the Standing Committee of Commissioners of Police.

For further information contact

Mr. Shabaka Kambon
Communications Officer/International Affairs Adviser
CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS)
e-mail- skambon@carimpacs.org  and s.kambon@gmail.com 
Telephone - 1 (868) 468-3264 or 472-1386

Also Mr.Karl Angell

Telephone- 1(876) 322-8666