BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WITH the aim of boosting safety and security as well as increasing crime detection, within a matter of weeks the Ministry of National Security will mount additional closed circuit cameras in the Basseterre and surrounding areas.
Special Advisor to the Ministry of National Security, Dr. Norgen Wilson, addressed the issue last Wednesday (Apr. 28) during Minister Sam Condor’s press conference. He indicated that in addition to the cameras that have already been installed in St. Kitts, 50 would be mounted.
The programme commenced during the earlier half of 2009 with about four cameras being mounted on the island and, according to Dr. Wilson, since then some 20 cameras have been mounted in Nevis.
“Within the next four weeks we should start seeing some of these cameras going up. They’ve already had some 20 cameras installed in Nevis and it’s just St. Kitts now to come online. There should be approximately 50 cameras going up in the Basseterre area to begin (in) Basseterre, Frigate Bay and moving into Conaree shortly.”
Dr. Wilson however informed that the mounting of the cameras is but one leg of the project and the other components are being processed.
“This morning we had a meeting and the technicians are actually checking out the areas where we are going to be placing the monitors…So over the next month, at least, we would see this. We are working very closely with another private security company and, beside the cc camera, we are trying out best to make it a wireless system…
“We will be doing some testing where police officers can receive information directly in their vehicles. And so what we are trying to do is take away what has been happening in some communities, where an officer might be at a police station and can’t respond because he’s actually manning the station. And so we are actually putting the stations within the vehicles so that they can readily respond. So, shortly we will be having added eyes on the ground and better communications within the police force and community forces on a whole.”
In an effort to complete the project expeditiously, as explained by the Special Advisor, the implementation process would take place simultaneously with the planning and testing processes. He suggested that this is necessary, especially in light of the “emergency where violent crime is concerned.”
Specially-trained personnel would have responsibility for monitoring the closed circuit camera system, Condor explained, which would be done at a centralised area.
