Department of Transport and Home Affairs Sign Data-Sharing Agreement to Aid Police

The Ministries of Transport and Home Affairs have formalized an agreement aimed at improving the exchange of information between transport officials and law enforcement. Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Transport, Chester Williams, says a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs, allowing authorized personnel to access information through the Transport Department’s database.  The agreement is expected to provide the Police Department with quicker access to vehicle-registration and ownership information needed during investigations and other law-enforcement operations. Williams discussed the purpose of the MOU and the importance of closer collaboration between the two ministries during an appearance on today’s edition of The Morning Show.

Chester Williams, CEO, Ministry of Transport: “Myself and the CEO in the Ministry of Home Affairs signed an MOU in respect to the sharing of information because the same way how we want information form the police, the police want information from us and the police cannot give us information if they do not know what we’re going to do with the information and likewise we will not give information if we don’t know what the information is going to be used for so the MOU between the Department of Transport and the Ministry of Home Affairs is for the exchange of information. So we at transport want information in respect to traffic accidents, persons issues tickets so that we can know what are the hotspots on the highways for us to do enforcement. And the police want information from us in respect to the database that houses vehicle registration. So having signed the MOU the CEO from Home Affairs is supposed to get a computer, I just spoke to him again last week and we discussed it further and he is supposed to get a computer and the computer will be given to transport to put the database on that computer and it will be housed I believe where the police camera room is so it will like to the camera system that the police has. Whenever the police request any information from transport pertinent to the identification of any vehicle involved in any criminal activity Transport Department provides the information to them immediately. As a matter of fact sometimes police officers would contact me directly without following the proper protocols and I still accommodate because I understand the nature of police investigation and the urgency in which those information may be needed. Secondly Transport Department being a department that is responsible for taking in information pertinent to the registration of vehicles in this country we have an obligation to make sure the information we collect from the public is kept to a certain extent with certain level of integrity and that it if we share that information that it is shared for the right reason.”

Williams says the arrangement establishes a formal framework for sharing information while ensuring that access to the database is controlled and used only for legitimate official purposes. The collaboration is also expected to reduce delays in obtaining vehicle information and allow the two ministries to respond more efficiently when conducting investigations or carrying out enforcement duties.