The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOUR digital billboards have been erected across New Providence to send out warnings about missing children to facilitate the rollout of the Mandatory Action Rescuing Children Operation (MARCO) Alert system.

Speaking at an event at Police Headquarters yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said information about missing children will be broadcasted on billboards stationed at several sites on the island like the Lynden Pindling International Airport .

He said: “Four digital billboards will facilitate the MARCO’s Alert System to broadcast important messages about a missing child at the Lynden Pindling International Airport, the junction of Chippingham Road and West Bay Street, R M Bailey Park, and S C McPherson School on Blue Hill Road.”

Full implementation of the MARCO alert system has long been a promise of the Minnis-led administration. Despite several promises last year, it is still not clear when the system will be fully up and running.

However, National Security Minister Marvin Dames suggested yesterday the government is very close to achieving its goal to have the system fully rolled out this term.

He said the Cabinet recently approved funding for software that will play an important role in getting the information out there once the system becomes operational.

“You can see the billboards up throughout New Providence and Cabinet would have recently a few weeks ago approved the acquisition of software that will allow us on a minute’s notice to disseminate information wherever we want, however we want and as quickly as we want,” he said.

“And if we want to bring hence that information meaning that if there’s a situation on Abaco and that it’s solely related to Abaco, if we want to solely send it to Abaco we can do that.”

Asked for a definitive timeline on the rollout of the system, Police Commissioner Paul Rolle replied: “As the minister said a moment ago, we got the funding for the integration software of that…so I would imagine in a few weeks because you would see them out on the polls and they’re doing testing and setting up grids so if something is (contained) to a specific area, the mall and the child goes missing we can geofence the mall and everybody in the mall will get a message saying ‘we’re looking for this child and have you seen this child?’ But that message wouldn’t come to someone out here (at the police headquarters). If it’s something on a national level that can go throughout the commonwealth.”

After the murder of 11-year-old Marco Archer in 2011, a law was enacted allowing authorities to send notifications alerting the public to missing children, dubbed the MARCO Alert.

While the system was rolled out by the Christie administration, it is unclear if it was ever used and it was set for an overhaul by the Minnis administration.

In 2019, Mr Dames said the government had committed $3.05m over three years for the MARCO Alert. A contract was later signed between the government and Multimedia Technologies for the system in late August of that year.

According to the latest Royal Bahamas Police Force statistics, there were 100 missing person reports filed in 2020. Of those figures, the police chief said previously, 88 of those required no further actions from officers, but he added that 11 cases are still being investigated.