BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – YESTERDAY (Feb. 6), signatures were affixed to documents which officially secured the transfer of Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force from the United States Government.
The signing ceremony was held at the office of the Commissioner of Police at Police Headquarters on Lozack Road, Basseterre in St. Kitts.
Individuals whose signatures were affixed to the documents were Commissioner of Police Celvin ‘C.G’ Walwyn; Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Astona Browne; and Chargé d' Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Barbados, Christopher Sandrolini.
COP Walwyn disclosed that the system permits the police “to be able to track evidence found at a crime scene or use fingerprints for identification purposes”.
According to him, “prior to coming to the Federation, we did not have this system. Through cooperation with the United States, we have been given this system. Our officers have been trained. Everything is now in place”.
Sandrolini said the system would help to increase security across the Caribbean, and revealed that the equipment was being provided to the Federation under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI).
He highlighted that the Department of States Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security as well as the FBI have all worked closely with their counterparts in St. Kitts with regard to the system.
He informed that a ‘similar system” was recently handed over in Antigua and Barbuda.
Sandrolini spoke about the importance of “regional cooperation” between the Caribbean islands in helping to collectively reduce crime.
“The Eastern Caribbean islands must depend on each other. Clearly, any criminal may travel from one island to the other very easily (and) drug trafficking and other kinds of illicit trafficking between the islands, and so the islands therefore must cooperate with each other. So the regionality of the system is important.
“We think the Fingerprint Identification System will enhance the border security for each island and for collectively regional security in the Eastern Caribbean. St. Kitts and Nevis’ law enforcement will now be better equipped to search database quickly and effectively for fingerprint analysis. And the system will make it easier to take fingerprints for other purposes, too, such as for identification cards.”
Speaking to the relationship between the US and the Caribbean region, specifically St. Kitts-Nevis in relation to the CBSI, Browne declared that “we have seen the tangible deliverables of such an important cooperation”.
