Twenty persons attached to the various divisions of the Ministry of Public Security are currently participating in a two-day training exercise on crime mapping.
The training, which commenced yesterday, is being coordinated by the ministry and facilitated by Geographic Information System (GIS) consultant Valrie Grant. Grant was last year awarded a $16.5 million contract to map crime hotspots in Region Four. The project falls under the ministry’s Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP).
At the launching ceremony yesterday, CSSP Project Manager Dr Clement Henry highlighted that the commencement of the training is a very important activity for the CSSP. “It is one of our key activity when we commenced the Crime Observatory Unit several years ago. It was always our intention to start doing spatial analysis and today we are moving another step closer to being able to conduct spatial analysis,” he said.
Henry added that the GIS training will allow participants to understand where crime and violence are occurring and provide data analysis that would help to design social programmes and strategies to address crime and violence.
