The Office of the Open Campus Principal, Jamaica. 10 November 2016 - Following the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between The University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus, and the National Police College of Jamaica, both institutions have collaborated to host a regional conference entitled, Policing & Security: Strategies and Solutions in Addressing Gang-related Crimes. This inaugural conference will be held in Kingston at The UWI Mona Visitors’ Lodge from November 22 to 23, 2016. This event will form a special part of the observance celebrations of Police Week 2016, and it is the first of its kind in the Caribbean to be spearheaded by practitioners and academia.
Keynote speaker at the event will be Mr. Dextan Dixon, who is the Country Attaché for Jamaica-Cayman Islands within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)of the USA’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Other presenters at the regional conference will include: Mr. Dave Rampersad, Liaison Officer of Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the Security Attaché from the Canadian High Commission; representatives from other high commissions and embassies; senior Jamaican police administrators; senior Jamaican government officials; and senior members of The UWI’s academic staff.
The conference is expected to bring together policy makers, civil society, police officers engaged in crime fighting, social and community workers, government officials, and non-governmental organisations, in a bid to share ideas and to find solutions to address the inherent challenges in gang formation and gang-related crimes. The discussions will seek to bring awareness and solutions to policy gaps and the various socio-political, economic and cultural issues impacting crime in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.
Dr. Luz Longsworth, Principal & Pro Vice-Chancellor of UWI Open Campus, states that: “This collaborative effort is expected to bring particular benefits to both police and academia…in that the police will be able to take advantage of academic insights, research and policy advice, while academia will strengthen their knowledge on the challenges members of police force face on a daily basis.”
Plans are also underway to have key elements of the conference live streamed online. For more information about this inaugural regional conference, please contact Dr. Beverly Shirley at beverly.shirley@open.uwi.edu or Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr. Norman Heywood at norman.heywood@jcf.gov.jm.
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About The UWI
Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a fully-fledged, regional University with over 50,000 students. Today, The UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with three physical campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and an Open Campus. The UWI serves 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos. The UWI’s faculty and students come from more than 40 countries and The University has collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. The UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.) Visit www.uwi.edu
