It's not unusual to hear of the US government donating security gear to the police department - but a donation today looks at the bigger picture - data as a crime fighting tool.
The donation includes a high-powered Dell server and three Dell workstations which are intended to be used for data management.
A release says this will all enhance Belize's effort inter-agency crime-data sharing - and the Minister was fully on board with that at the handing over in Belmopan:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"This invaluable investment supports the advances which the ministry has been making towards an overarching crime intelligence architecture for Belize. This loan of ICT equipment will strengthen the interagency institutional capacities of public sector agencies in Belize for the generation and analysis of information on citizen security. It will, furthermore, contribute towards the establishment of an overarching crime intelligence architecture, CIA, not the real CIA but still CIA for Belize by 2023. We cannot acquiesce to a siloed approach to data and information management on citizen security as every piece of the puzzle enables us to have a more reliable and complete picture of this giant that we continue to battle."
Andie De Arment, U.S. Embassy Political-Economic Chief
"Intelligence and information, you know data-driven decision making is a key pillar in any modern-day law enforcement mechanism. It is an extremely critical piece of the puzzle and all the other things that we are trying to achieve and support with our government of Belize partners are predicated on that data. The information and the intelligence to support operations, to support work investigations, and to support better use of resources."
The resources will be directed to the Belize Crime Observatory- the national repository of crime data and information. IT is valued at 70 thousand dollars.
It is funded through USAID and implementing partner UNDP Belize which procured the equipment. This is known as the InfoSegura Regional Project, part of U.S. efforts to improve citizen security in the region.
