Smarter Solutions to Public Safety

The UPP Government is leveraging on advances in technology to enhance the safety of citizens, residents and visitors. From enhanced immigration border control to providing cutting edge technology to public safety agencies, the UPP Administration is investing in smart solutions to enhance public safety and public well-being.

Public Safety Communications Network (PSCN)

The UPP Administration successfully commissioned a modern, electronic communications platform that has significantly enhanced the response time of public safety agencies to emergency situations. Two distinct components have already been commissioned:

Digital Radio Trunking System - twoway radios have been installed in police stations, and police vehicles. In addition, over two hundred fifty (250) hand-held radios have been deployed to the Royal Antigua & Barbuda Police Force, the Defense Force, the Coast Guard, the Office of National Drug Control and Money
Laundering Policy (ONDCP), the Emergency Medical Services and Her Majesty’s Prison.

Modern E-911 Center – a modern emergency 911 response and dispatch center utilizing computer assisted call handling technology provides residents and visitors with a rapid and efficient 911 service. The center features multiple emergency and administrative lines, automated telephone searches, instant call replay and the ability to conference call multiple agencies. The new Emergency Room at the Mount St. John’s Medical Centre has already been equipped with a two-way radio system that enables prompt communication with the Emergency Medical Services.

Smart Vehicles

The UPP Administration will equip a fleet of police and other public safety agency vehicles with high-speed rugged computers and cameras that will provide real time forensic and other data to prevent crime and solve crime.

Smart Police Officers in Smart Police Stations

Using cutting edge computer hardware technology, the UPP Administration will equip every police and fire station with a highspeed wide area network (WAN) to
enhance the operational efficiency of the Police and Fire Brigade as well as strengthen crime prevention and crime detection capabilities.

The UPP administration will re-tool every police officer for working in Smart Police Stations by providing specialized training in software modules that will ensure that the Police spend more time in protecting and serving.

The UPP Administration will also:

• Expand the PSCN to ensure two way radio communication coverage in every police station and in every fire station as well as in every police vehicle and police motorcycle
• Ensure that every police man and woman is equipped with a two way radio
• Strengthen the PSCN platform to meet the full operational requirements of the Defense Force, the Coast Guard, the ONDCP and the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS)
• Equip every ambulance in the EMS fleet with a two way radio
• Develop a modern PSCN subplatform in Barbuda to provide public safety agencies with services that are parallel to those in Antigua
• Make the PSCN platform available to other agencies that could benefit from rapid two way communication including the Port Authority at the Deep Water Harbour, APUA, the Antigua & Barbuda Airport Authority and the Lands Division.

Immigration Management Control System (IMCS)

In collaboration with regional and extra-regional agencies, the UPP Administration has modernized the control checks at points of entry at the Airport and at seaports at Heritage Quay, the Deep Water Harbour, English Harbour, Jolly Beach and Urlings.

The processing of arrivals and departures has been digitally automated to international standards. To further protect our borders, the UPP administration will:

• Deploy enhanced security features and interfaces to include biometric modules for capturing digital photographs and digital fingerprints at the points of entry
• Deploy special software to automate and digitally archive the processing of immigration time renewals and the issuance of work permits and link these databases directly to the IMCS platform for verification at the point of entry into the State
• Introduce the electronic issuance of visas (e-visas) at all overseas missions and consulates where Antigua and Barbuda visas are currently issued and link the e-visa database directly to the IMCS platform for verification at the point of entry into Antigua and Barbuda.

CYBER LAB FOR ANTIGUA & BARBUDA

The UPP Administration recognizes the prevalence of international cyber crime. Viruses, hacker attacks and other cyber threats are now a part of daily life. Malware spreading throughout the Internet, hackers stealing confidential data and mailboxes flooded with spam are the price that the World is paying for computing convenience. The UPP Administration has already engaged high level officials from the United States of America for the development of a Cyber Lab in Antigua to serve Antigua and Barbuda and the Northern OECS countries. Discussions are well advanced for the establishment of this lab by mid 2009.

The UPP Administration will:

• Facilitate cyber crime investigation training among Police officers to standardize investigation procedures and evidence collection techniques
• Empanel a Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) composed of two Police officers, two network security professionals and one forensic expert
• Promote collaboration among the Police, information technology industry personnel, academia and concerned citizens to address cyber crime and its related issues
• Develop cyber forensic tools for criminal investigation including forensic analysis tools for the analysis of digital data on computers, cell phones and sim cards
• Promote Antigua as a Resource Centre for other Police organizations in the Caribbean Region
• Fund a mobile forensic work station
• Train judicial officers, public prosecutors and judges in the methodology of cyber criminals and in the acquisition of digital evidence
• Enact appropriate laws depending upon the trends in cyber crime
• Improve awareness of cyber crime among computer users and enhance Information Security.