Marvin Dames, Minister of National Security. Photo: Terrel W. Carey Sr/Tribune Staff
By MORGAN ADDERLEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
madderley@tribunemedia.net
SHOTSPOTTER technology should be in use throughout New Providence by the end of March, National Security Minister Marvin Dames said on Thursday.
In addition, Mr Dames said the police force was making progress over the introduction of other crimefighting tools such as CCTV, body cams, and dash cams.
Mr Dames was speaking to reporters at Police Headquarters the day after a quadruple shooting that occurred in Yellow Elder Gardens that left one man dead and three others, including a woman, in hospital.
He said while law enforcement has done what it can to adapt its strategies, there is “still a long way to go” in continuing to stem the tide of violent and often deadly gun crimes.
“As we speak now, we have the team in from Shotspotter and we’re hoping that certainly by some time during the end of next month that system should be up throughout New Providence alive and well, and we would be able to capture something like that and respond almost instantaneously,” he said.
According to its website, ShotSpotter technology is “an advanced system of sensors, algorithms and artificial intelligence (used) to detect, locate and alert police to gunfire".
Last month, Mr Dames announced that the government entered into an agreement for a Shotspotter system.
At the time, he said: “We are excited (and) we are looking forward to it.”
On Tuesday, Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson suggested authorities don’t want to divulge too many details on the technology.
When asked for an update on Shotspotter, Mr Ferguson told reporters: “That is a piece of technology you will hear it and it is really…we really don’t want to give too much information to the persons that we expect to take into custody. And so all I will say, it is ongoing.”
Late last year, Mr Dames said plans were in place to introduce law enforcement drones, bodycams, the ShotSpotter technology and expand CCTV before June of this year.
The national security minister also provided updates on body cam, dash cam, and CCTV technologies on Thursday.
“Cabinet just approved the body cam RFP (request for proposals) a few weeks ago, we’re sending that out,” Mr Dames said. “We have our CCTV second phase should be, (the RFP) it’s out there now, and the first week in March we should be getting it back and having a good idea as to who would be providing us with additional cameras and we will be coming on during the next phase with the dash cams for the cars.”
Earlier this month, Mr Dames provided updates on the government’s plans to roll out a drone programme to aid crime fighting.
“As far as the drones programmes is concerned, hopefully within the next few weeks we should know who that company is,” he said at the time. “That was a very, very involved process and I want to commend the team that was responsible for actually going through the elimination process.
“They did a tremendous job. You know, we end up with the right company, the company that will serve our needs here in The Bahamas and the company that will allow us to continue to do what we need to do and assist us in executing to bring crime down to make our people safer."
Comments
John 5 years, 10 months ago
One of the greatest waste of government money. Technology is really for snipers using high powered weapons and shooting from a distance. How many many in this country fit this category? Most of the shootings here are done at close range and the location of the shooter is not an issue.
DDK 5 years, 10 months ago
Bahamas Government loves to waste money! It may be what it does best! Lest we forget, it also excels in securing cuts for the purchase or contract!
John 5 years, 10 months ago
Question: the police has always maintained that crime in this country is driven by ‘a few prolific offenders who wreak havoc on the rest of society.’ So why is Marvin Dames and others building the police force into a military force that has a more equipped arsenal than the Defense Force?
bogart 5 years, 10 months ago
....shotspotter sound device....wha da big deal....???....victim... will mostly done get shoot intenditally....dead....!!!!......so what will da sound help the ...already done shoot dead......???.....accused captured....influential.....muck a mucks appeal for ...rehabilitation....can be reformed....adding to hundreds done accused......waiting years....5 years past no hanging...sooooooo.....what does da accused foung punished .....long years ...cut short for behaviour....and out...mingling wid victims families....!!!.,....regular basic suggestion is wid patrol cars wind down da windows an listen....
John 5 years, 10 months ago
Who shot J.F. Kennedy? and why did the US government spend so much time and money trying to collect every photo and video of the incident under the pretense that the photos and videos would be used to help in the investigation?
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 10 months ago
Colossal waste of money. Just more of our VAT dollars down the drain. Is there a muck-a-muck middle-man involved in purchasing all of this unsuitable high tech rubbish?
John 5 years, 10 months ago
In South Africa's Kruger National Park, gunfire locators are being used to prevent rhino poaching "In public safety and law enforcement, gunshot location systems are often used in high-crime areas for rapid alerts and awareness into the communications and dispatch center where the alerts are used to direct first responders to the scene of the gunfire, thus increasing arrest rates, improving officer safety, securing witnesses and evidence, and enhancing investigations, as well as in the long run deterring gun crimes, shootings and especially "celebratory gunfire" (the practice of shooting weapons in the air for fun). Gunshot location systems based upon wide-area acoustic surveillance coupled with persistent incident data storage transcends dispatch-only uses because reporting of urban gunfire (via calls to 9-1-1) can be as low as 25%,[3] which means that law enforcement agencies and their crime analysts have incomplete data regarding true activity levels and patterns. With a wide-area acoustic-surveillance-based approach combined with a persistent repository of gunfire activity (i.e., a database), agencies have closer to 100% activity data that can be analyzed for patterns and trends to drive directed patrols and intelligence-led policing.[citation needed] Additional benefits include aiding investigators to find more forensic evidence to solve crimes and provide to prosecutors to strengthen court cases resulting in a higher conviction rate. "
So if you fire a gun, police can come to your house and you cannot say, "It wasn't me." so maybe there are some benefits. Locating guns before they are used in a crime.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 10 months ago
It doesn't seem like this technology would be effective on its own. Now if it were linked to cctv and the technology could automatically switch to the video of the spot where the shot was fired, so you could get a set of maybe 20 cameras feeding video of the area around the shot you'd see the person running away or the car and which direction they headed. now THAT would be helpful. I want royalties Minister Dames.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 10 months ago
You and I must be living in different countries. The country I live in has great difficulty maintaining traffic signals and a general post office. Who's going to maintain all of this high tech equipment and at what cost? LMAO
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 10 months ago
Well I don't know the cost of maintaining the shotspotters thing but the other stuff doesn't seen too difficult. The shotspotter gives a location. That location is used to perform a lookup of all cameras within a 1 mile radius. The system switches to the feed for those cameras. And from my previous royalty the camera system can be a hybrid system private/public. Maybe if your business registers you get a VAT discount
SP 5 years, 10 months ago
The Government has lots of problems to solve and limited capital to work with. Firstly, they need to focus on technology that brings ROI's like traffic camera systems that capture photos of traffic offenders license plate numbers, which can be automatically traced and the individuals ticketed fined through the post office.
In the Bahamas, a green light means look both ways, twice before moving forward. A yellow light means speed up and a red light means haul ass!
From my experiences driving in Nassau is like driving in a demolition derby, road traffic could make millions annually from people running red lights alone!
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 10 months ago
They have that. A company has already proposed it. I bet youd be surprised at the technology thats been proposed to this government produced by Bahamians.
John 5 years, 10 months ago
Well Dames did say that the shotspotter will be tied into the CCTV system that they plan to have up and working. But apparently over 90% of the murders for 2019 have been solved so apparently this country/police/government/citizens have a bigger problem with deterring crime, more specifically murder, than detecting it. Apparently those who commit murder don’t worry about being caught or spending the rest of their life’s (or at least 25 years in Fox Hill Prison. And they are going there at a rate of 50-60 a year, most being under the age of 25. Of course the converse of that is in the next 10-15 years when they will start being released (if a life sentence is equivalent of 25 years). They will be coming into a strange land with little or no friends and family and work skills and ethics that are obsolete. So they may come out to be an additional burden and menace to society.
John 5 years, 10 months ago
If shotspotter technology had been available when JF Kennedy was killed in 1963, then the plot may have failed or the outcome may have been different. Reports are that Lee Harvey Oswald a young radical at the time, was tricked into participating in what was supposed to be a fake attempt on the president’s life. He was given a low powered rifle and positioned in a building overlooking the president’s parade route. However after the president was shot and Oswald was arrested, he protested loudly claiming he was innocent and had alibis to prove it. He was shot and killed while under heavy police guard. But now the problem of the gunshot wounds existed as the actual words entered the president from the front of the head and the side of the neck. Based on where Lee Harvey Oswald was located the shots should have been to the back of the head. But the president’s car stopped unexpectedly for a mere two seconds causing the shots to be fired prematurely. Of course once the president was pronounced dead his body was whisked away by the secret service and taken out of Texas without allowing an autopsy to be performed. Some say the corse was later tampered with with artificial wounds being put at the back of the head and the original wounds covered up. Requests were also made for anyone having photos or videos of the incident to turn the in to assist in the investigation. Word is that the video was then edited to eliminate the two seconds stop by the presidents car as well as the wounds to the front of the head. This is considered one of America’s greatest coverups
rawbahamian 5 years, 10 months ago
Perhaps if Minister Dames makes sure that the police on patrol in cars or on foot be forced to leave their cell phones in the station during their shifts so they can pay attention to their paid duties instead of personal calls and whatsapp then I am certainthe efficiency would double as actual fighters. The Bahamas is the only country I have witnessed police on foot patrol walking with a cell phone in their hands or to their heads or texting which basically displays how interested they are in their roles as police officers !!!
TorontoGal 5 years, 10 months ago
After reading your comments I'm left shaking my head. After every shooting Bahamians are bellyaching because the police aren't doing enough to fight crime...many cases they have been blamed for such violence. Now the police are trying to use new technology and you are bellyaching once again, this time because it's "a waste of money". How do you know it's money wasted? Have you seen this type of technology anywhere else? Probably not! One of you even brought up when John Kennedy was killed...over 50 years ago. What the hell has that got to do with this?? Give the technology a try or better yet...quit being so damned negative and have some pride in your country. Sure there is much to improve, but this just might be the start of some major changes.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 10 months ago
To be fair on the criticism, just because someone says "technology" doesn't mean it will help the problem. The article only mentions the ability to identify the location of a gunshot, offhand I didn't see much point in that. People already call 919 to report that. BUT if the article had gone further to talk about capturing video of the location identified as I mentioned above, I think it would have been better received. If the article had talked about the plan to maintain the system/replacing defective cameras and how it would all be paid for maybe people could see the picture . Maybe they didn't mention all that because they dont want to give the info to criminals but if dumb me can think of it it's clearly not a top secret concept.
You know what every govt needs more of? Critics that they listen to, and rather than telling them theyre bellyaching, stop for a minute and say, they might have a point, we suck at maintaining things, how will we correct that this time? Adddress the concern rather than attacking the people. I see that same attitude with the WTO discussions, rather than addressing concerns they talk about how uneducated people are.
Whats been happening ESPECIALLY with the Minnis govt is they only listen to their people and they only hire their people sometimes the technology proposed is head scratching and quoted at outrageous amounts when cheaper effective routes are available. I'm sure if some had proposed a system that used block chain to track the location of a criminal they would have gotten another IDB loan instantaneously
John 5 years, 10 months ago
Toronto’s. Do you know that ninety percent of the murders for 2019 have been solved? You come here attacking everyone else post but yours have no substance. None at all. Yes originally I did say the sharpshooter technology was a waste of money because most of the shootings that occurred in this country, more specifically New Providence happens in close range and there’s no. Question as to where the shots came from. And secondly I felt it was a waste of money if it was going to be installed and not maintained or not used effectively. Then I also went on to post some of the additional features of the system, like identifying and reporting gunfire without human interaction, identifying the types of weapons being fired and by identifying the direction of the gunfire thus allowing first responders to approach a crime scene in a more safe and secure manner. And as a footnote I did mention the J.F. Kennedy asasination And if you was familiar with the circumstances it was suspected that J F K’s Vice President actually carried out a coup and killed tJFK so that he , Lyndon Johnson could become President. And, in support of the shotspotter technology, I said had it been around then, it would’ve helped prove that based on his location, Lee Harvey Oswald, could not have fired the shots that killed the president. Or your own perusal google ‘the magic bullet that killed J.FK.’ Tha fact that this incident happened many years ago doesn’t make it irrelevant. In fact it may be such incidents that led to the development of the technology.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 10 months ago
You're a lost soul....an internet browsing addict who thinks others can't find for themselves reliable sources of info when they feel the need to do so. It's a crying shame no one is willing to pay you for all of that time you devote to searching the internet about all and sundry. LMAO
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