Top law enforcement officials are putting their heads together at regular meetings to formulate new crime fighting initiatives designed to increase information sharing in solving high profile cases like the recent double murders on Bimini.
One new measure coming out of the Heads of National Law Enforcement Agencies (HONLEA) talks is the formation of a National Intelligence Bureau, according to deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Peter Deveaux-Isaacs.
“The National Intelligence Bureau is still in the embryonic stage. It is another initiative from the Ministry of National Security. HONLEA will be the administrative and directive arm of it,” he disclosed in a Bahama Journal interview.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Cynthia Pratt is expected to make further announcements about the new agency at a later date.
Ministry of National Security officials have said that ideas like the intelligence bureau are a clear indication that time is well spent at the high level talks where initiatives being developed could prove beneficial in the fight against crime.
“The genesis of the HONLEA is to ensure that our law enforcement agencies and officials are communicating with each other, that they are sharing intelligence and are sharing information,” said Mr. Deveaux-Isaacs.
“We don’t want to have a situation where one agency has information but there is no forum in which the information is shared that can help in the overall fight against crime.”
The deputy permanent secretary noted that information sharing is “absolutely critical” in cases like the recent murders of Bernhard Bolzano and his fiance, Baroness Barbara Frelin von Perfall.
The affluent Austrian couple was shot to death in their hotel room at a quaint hotel in Bimini, creating concerns that the country could suffer some international fallout to its tourism industry.
Last week police brought 22-year-old Frederick Cardinal Francis, a Bimini native, to a New Providence magistrate’s court to be arraigned for the slayings.
“It is amazing where you could get good information. An organization like the Department of Environmental Health has information that can be useful to the police,” said Mr. Deveaux-Isaacs
“Other agencies like the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, Water and Sewerage – because of where they go – they can provide very useful information that can help the agencies deter crime.”
“On a more national level when you have the Departments of Immigration and Customs sharing their information with the police and the defence force, you can see how critical that would be in fighting crime,” he explained.
HONLEA’s mandate is to conduct regular and structured fora that would permit law enforcement officials at the highest level to network and also develop strategies to deal with crime and other issues related to national security.
By: Tosheena Robinson-Blair, The Bahama Journal
