RSS Calls For Greater Regional Crime Cooperation

BASSETERRE: Law enforcement officers across the Caribbean are being urged to collaborate closely to dismantle criminal networks operating across national borders.

The call came from the Regional Security System’s director of policing and risk management, Lieutenant Colonel Kerry Waterman.

He was speaking at the closing ceremony of a three weeklong RSS Training Institute course on drug and gang investigations, held at the RSS headquarters in Barbados.

Seventeen officers from law enforcement agencies across the region successfully completed the course.

Lieutenant Colonel Waterman said drugs, firearms and gang activity in the Caribbean are interconnected, with the same criminal networks often involved in violence, money laundering, corruption and other forms of organised crime.

He said the region’s law enforcement response must therefore be equally connected.

Waterman noted that while criminals move across jurisdictions without regard for national boundaries, law enforcement agencies can be hampered by jurisdictional issues and a reluctance to share vital information.

He urged the officers to share information and combine resources where possible to better disrupt and dismantle criminal networks across the region.