By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

A CONTRACT signing between the Ministry of National Security and Multimedia Technologies Ltd for a little over $1.9m has propelled the much-anticipated MARCO Alert one step further towards protecting the country’s children.

The public warning alert system signing took place at the Ministry of National Security yesterday. Two other contracts were also signed: one for the audio-visual integrated communication system with Multimedia Technologies Ltd and a long-term service agreement between the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Damen Shipyard Group.

In May 2017 — following a second trial — Kofhe Goodman, of Yorkshire Drive, was convicted of killing young Marco Archer between September 23 and 28, 2011.

Archer, a sixth-grade student of Columbus Primary, disappeared from Brougham Street on September 23, 2011 and was found dead days later. His family had reported him missing after he failed to return home from a neighbourhood store where he went to purchase candy. His family made public pleas for his safe return however, on September 28, police discovered his body in bushes behind an apartment complex on Yorkshire Drive.

The Mandatory Aggressive Action for Rescuing Children Operation (MARCO) Alert is designed to be on par with the Amber Alert in the United States which alerts citizens across America electronically when a child goes missing.

“The billboards are only here in New Providence,” said Minister of National Security Marvin Dames. “This contract we signed today will give us the ability to communicate cross country via cell phone. There is no difference from the Amber Alert in the US. These are all mass communication systems.

“If a kid is missing in the States, the Amber Alert goes up, you’re gonna have the same thing and it will go to your phone. We can’t put boards in the front of every household but you have a TV and you have a cell phone. If something happens, instantaneously, whether it’s the police, whether it’s NEMA, they can send that alert to you. It’s a warning. ‘This kid is missing, if you see or get any information call us right away.’

“So what it does really is gives us the ability to send mass communications out in an instant in every community in this country. We are taking it to another level. We can even do this on your TV, so this is how mass communication systems work. It’s not just a billboard, but there are a lot of mechanics behind a billboard. So information has to be sent to that and there is a process. That is the technical side of it and that is where the money is really … the software and things of that nature.”

Touted as having a proven record of service to The Bahamas government, Rudolph Walker, CEO of Multimedia Technologies, said he is thankful for the opportunity to bring such technology to the country. Sometime in 2019, the government signed a contract with this company to start the work on the alert system and shortly thereafter the company erected four electronic billboards in New Providence at a cost of some $2.7 million.

“Thanks to the government of The Bahamas in particular the Ministry of National Security for affording us this opportunity to implement such an advanced public alert warning system and audio-visual integration for the Royal Bahamas Defence Force,” he said.

“Emergency notifications over cell phones, be they 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G, is a key step in a more efficient and modernised civil protection for the citizenry of The Bahamas. This technology has been deployed throughout North America as well as Europe and I would like to say that The Bahamas is among the first to really deploy it in the Caribbean.

“The underlying technology is based on a technology called cell broadcast which allows public warning messages to reach specific areas in the Bahamas or even the entire population within seconds.”

Mr Walker said the difference with his mass communications platform and that of a telecommunications carrier is that Multimedia Technologies will be able to interrupt transmission of any electronic device, be it cell phone, television or radio, in order to broadcast an emergency message.

On hand for the signing was Tanzia Archer-Humes, Marco’s sister, who said if her brother had been alive, he would have been 21 years old. She was happy for the advancement towards child protection, but said the occasion also brought back painful memories.

“It is a bittersweet feeling,” she said. “Unfortunately we had to lose Marco for this to happen and we are grateful that it is finally coming to an end and it will be in place whereas other kids could be saved. Everyone can benefit now in areas that we were not fortunate to benefit. We know he will go down in history and we can always say he did not die in vain.

“It is still sad and it hurts to think about it sometimes. This (the signing) puts you right back to that place, but again I can smile and we can be grateful to see that something good came out of it.”

Asked about the sex offenders registry which was promised by government to go along with the legislation related to the MARCO Alert, Mr Dames did not want to put a time frame on it, but promised it for this quarter.

“We are well on our way with the sex offender register,” he said. “We are working on all the foundational issues. Cabinet would have approved this recently. We are building out all of the locations. We have been doing a lot of work in the background and we would have run a number of testings on an electronic registry. That is still advancing so we are hoping to make that a reality very shortly.

“The team has been working now, even throughout the pandemic. So we are putting in place, policies and guidelines and everything consistent with the regulations in the legislation. We want to make certain that once we are up and running, we are up and running.”