The Ministry of Home Affairs today received over 50 thousand Belize dollars in new computer equipment.
But, it's not for scrolling through instagram or keeping up with the Commissioner's daily Facebook status updates, the U.S. Embassy Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs have designed it a project with lofty goals and a big name, called "Evidence-Based Information Management for Citizen Security in Central America and the Dominican Republic."
The donation was held today in Belmopan and here's more about it:
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"In our rapidly revolving world information and communications technology is king. We have to utilize greater assets like this donation that we received today under the InfoSegura Project in order to gather data, in order to help us to predict crime. As you could see with the rugged laptops, tablets - these are all exceptional pieces of equipment and cutting-edge technology which that is the way of the future."
Mary Walz, INL Coordinator
"Materials provided, first of all we have some smaller handheld materials, but they are very strong and they will be used by the forensics people particularly at crimes of scene to do investigation, they will input data and they will be able to share the data in real time with a number of agencies all of whom can accumulate and analyze that data. In addition to that there is a server being provided for the police unit specifically is putting together police data, again allowing multiple sharing across agencies, providing a broader base of date so that data can be analyze and the analysis of that data will then inform public policy, it will also be information available to the general public, so that people have transparency in their government. One of the greatest commitments we have is to the safety of the citizens of Belize, having a stronger law enforcement mechanism where information can be gathered and evaluated for future planning."
The donation is part of what's called the InfoSegura Project, and the recipients are the Belize Police Department, the National Forensic Science Service, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. These all contribute to the Belize Crime Observatory - which is the national repository of crime data and information. You can visit their site at bco.gov.bz.
