By LEANDRA ROLLETribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FULL implementation of the country's Mandatory Action Rescuing Children Operation (MARCO) Alert system can be expected "very shortly," according to National Security Minister Marvin Dames.

Speaking ahead of a Cabinet meeting yesterday, the minister told reporters the system should be fully up and running during this quarter of 2020. However, he couldn't give a definitive timeline.

"I don't have an official release but very shortly sometime you should see it during this quarter," he said.

"You should also be seeing the drones that we have had. We've been having some very good meetings with the provider and we're very pleased with the progress and you should begin to see a lot of this technology before the year is out. I'm very excited about it."

In recent weeks, police have reported several missing teenagers, with the latest missing case said to be a 15-year-old male.

This comes after police discovered a body in bushes in the Carmichael Road area Sunday afternoon. Family and friends have identified the body as 17-year-old Lavard McKenzie, who was last seen at his Miller's Heights residence on August 27 around 10am.

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.

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

Speaking in the House of Assembly in July, Mr Dames noted that the MARCO's alert system was still in "its testing phase and will soon be available nationally."

Mr Dames said despite the system not being fully implemented, officers have continued to effectively carry out their duties.

He said: "Despite being in a COVID environment, if you go around town and you see that the boards are almost up. I have regular meetings and I'm quite pleased with the progress and very shortly, you should see that in full effect"

"It's just the infrastructure is being erected and so if you go across the island, the police can point and show you but despite the fact that we're in this COVID, we continue to work and getting the infrastructure up so that we can get Marco's alert up and running but that does not take away from the fact that it doesn't stop us from doing what we have to do."

"…The police force continues to do what we have to do and I'm very pleased with their efforts."