The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE launch of a sexual offender’s registry will follow a public education campaign on its accompanying restrictions, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said yesterday.

That education campaign will include explaining under what grounds a judge can remove an offender from the list.

Mr Munroe said officials are ready to roll out the register but there are some manpower and resource issues that will be addressed “speedily” within the next week. However, this rollout will not be without logistical problems, Mr Munroe said, adding officials would have to track down sexual offenders who were released since July 2019.

As for the Marco’s Alert system, Mr Munroe said while Aliv is ready to launch its system to customers on its network on Monday, the Bahamas Telecommunications Company has “completely and utterly dropped the ball” in preparing for the launch of the alert system.

He said he will not be patient with the company, which has a limited time to meet the demand for a working alert platform, adding he had no issues with encouraging people to port their numbers to Aliv if they wanted to receive alerts.

Mr Munroe spoke during the Office of the Prime Minister’s press briefing yesterday.

“The specifics on a sexual offenders registry in The Bahamas is the Act was passed and it was brought into force by an appointed day notice on the 27th of July 2019,” he said. “There was money paid for the electronic registration system and for kiosk machines for biometric reporting of sexual offenders.

“To date there is one person on the register who’s been released I am advised and there are other persons who are in the prison who have been put on the system.

“Now the thinking I suppose is that the scheme of our provision is the minister of national security is supposed to notify or determine how to notify the public on the release of a sexual offender and so that notification can be generally to everybody or to specific persons and you remain on the register for ten years unless you go successfully to a judge to be removed.

“Now to be quite plain, I for the big part of my career successfully sued the government. A part of the justification of my appointment by the prime minister was just that and it doesn’t take much reflection to understand his thinking.

“As a lawyer before I present a case in court, I think about everything my opponent will do to defeat me and I move to neutralise that. In this job as minister of national security I will consider everything somebody can do to derail any efforts we take and we will definitely guard against them.

“So, the public will be educated about the sexual offenders register once it is aggressively launched and the public will be told for instance, if you hound somebody who is on the register and we are notified that is proven as good reason to have judges remove people from the register.”

He said the launch of the register should not be a reason for people to let their guards down.

“So, as a people we have to be more vigilant about what we are doing. We have to be more considered because people will seek to vindicate rights and so we will seek to educate the public on exactly what the provisions of the register are, how safe you should feel because somebody is on the register that you know about and you may find that the launching of the register gives no comfort for you to let down their guards.”

Speaking of the Marco’s Alert system, Mr Munroe said as the initiative was long in the making, he did not understand how BTC was not ready to launch it.

“I’m advised that the billboards are up. I’m advised and directed that there is also to be an automated notification to cellular phones.

“I’m distressed to advise that we have two telephone companies in this country that provide mobile service, mainly Aliv and BTC.

“The system of a Marco’s Alert will be tested over the Aliv on the 15th of November which is Monday, but BTC has completely and utterly dropped the ball.

“They do not have the ability for the alerts to be sent out over their system.

“If they do not remedy it, it will certainly be my suggestion that anybody who wants to participate in Marco’s Alert will have to make a choice as to their mobile phone provider. I would challenge BTC not to cause me to tell people to port over to Aliv in order to make Marco’s alert work.

“They have had sufficient time. I don’t intend to be patient with them.”

Concerning logistical problems with the sexual offender’s registry, Mr Munroe said there were many people released since the law came into force in 2019.

Those people have to now be found in order to meet the reporting requirements.

“It will prove a logistical problem now because persons would have been released. We would have to find them.

“If we can get them on the register to get them to report as they need to report.

“As minister I would have to determine in consultation with the director and the commissioner of the correctional institution who should be notified and to what extent.”