![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Offender-Zandoli-642x318.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
OffenderWatch<\/a>, the leading sex offender registry management solution, and the Caribbean Committee Against Sex Crimes (CCASC), an initiative of nonprofit\u00a0Zandoli USA<\/a>, have announced a joint mission to implement sex offender registries across the 15 nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).<\/p>\n OffenderWatch and Zandoli USA signed a Memorandum of Understanding that seeks to track sex offenders throughout the Caribbean and eventually across the world.<\/p>\n The sex offender registries would help fight the global crisis of sex crimes\u2014many against children. Law enforcement worldwide would benefit from sex offender registries in CARICOM nations as it would assist in international investigations and hopefully prevent future sex crimes.<\/p>\n CCASC works with non-profit and governmental agencies across CARICOM. All 15 CARICOM nations are at varying stages of implementing sex offender registration with Jamaica, Belize, and Trinidad and Tobago already having laws on the books.<\/p>\n The partners envision legislative change to implement a global sex offender registration system linking law enforcement agencies worldwide through a common database application. The objective will be to reduce child sex trafficking globally by facilitating international cooperation to track registered sex offenders as they move or travel from one country to another.<\/p>\n Nearly 18.5 million people live in the CARICOM states. Sex Crime is endemic in the Caribbean region, which has been recognized by the United Nations as one of the regions with the\u00a0highest rates of sex crime globally<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Memorandum of Understanding was signed this year by OffenderWatch President Mike Cormaci, Zandoli USA\u2019s founder, Camille St. Omer and the Chairman of the Caribbean Committee against Sex Crimes, Jonathan Bhagan. CCAC was founded by Camille St. Omer, also vice chair, and includes Gina Maharaj Attorney at Law as vice chair.<\/p>\n The first step of the proposed project is to approach the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to initiate a pilot project establishing the country\u2019s first operational Sex Offender Registry using technology provided by OffenderWatch.<\/p>\n Trinidad and Tobago became the smallest country in the world to pass a public sex offender\u2019s registry law on September 13, 2019. Judges will have the discretion to choose which offenders undergo public registration.<\/p>\n The partnership between OffenderWatch and Zandoli USA, named \u201cOperation Global Sex Offender\u2019s Registry,\u201d was inspired by the Angel Watch Center which monitors sex offenders attempting to enter or exit the United States. The Angel Watch Center was created by the passage of International Megan\u2019s Law (IML) in the United States.<\/p>\n Operation Global Sex Offender\u2019s Registry is designed to enhance the effectiveness of the US International Megan\u2019s Law to End Child Sex Trafficking (HR 515) by implementing similar policies and software in partner countries.<\/p>\n It is expected that law enforcement worldwide will benefit in many ways from a global sex offender registration network. There is huge potential for big data, predictive policing and AI algorithms to find new ways to prevent sex crime. The primary reason behind offenders entering a country and not registering is because the country of origin lacked an ability to notify a new country of the offender\u2019s intention to move. The new program by OffenderWatch instantly executes a notification upon entering the address of where an offender intends to travel or relocate to.<\/p>\n On September 28, 2019 a\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0investigative report showed there is more child pornography being detected on the internet than ever before in history. OffenderWatch and Zandoli USA believe that Operation Global Sex Offender\u2019s Registry is part of the solution to the epidemic of child abuse imagery. Much of this imagery is produced by child sex offenders who travel abroad for the purpose of accessing vulnerable children.<\/p>\n As part of the Memorandum of Understanding, a research paper will be produced to show the effectiveness of OffenderWatch\u2019s software in deterring sex crimes. Special focus will be given to the International Megan\u2019s Law to end Child Sex Trafficking, as well as the Angel Watch Center on how these measures have provided deterrence to sex offenders crossing borders.<\/p>\n Some countries in the Caribbean do not have rape crisis shelters or proper mechanisms in place to help survivors of sexual assault report the crimes to the police and recover. Once sufficient funding is available, Operation Global Sex Offender\u2019s Registry will aid Caribbean charities which assist survivors of sexual assault.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the recent economic impact of Covid-19 on the tourism-dependent economies of CARICOM, I hope that international sponsors can fund our efforts to implement cutting-edge software in the Caribbean region. A recent CARICOM study by Dr. Justine Pierre revealed how widespread Human Trafficking is in our region. We will need funding from the United States, European Union and United Kingdom for our work and for other groups fighting against sex crime and Human Trafficking in the Caribbean,\u201d said Jonathan Bhagan, Chairman of the Caribbean Committee Against Sex Crimes.<\/p>\n Sponsorship will be sought from governments and corporations willing to contribute towards the goal of preventing child sex trafficking and exploitation. Any government agency or corporation interested in partnering with Operation Global Sex Offender\u2019s Registry is invited to contact\u00a0globalsexoffenderregistry@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n OffenderWatch is the nation\u2019s leading sex offender registration solution, with over 15,000 users at law enforcement agencies in 50 states using the technology. Local, state and federal agencies use the software to monitor offenders, communicate with other registering agencies, and immediately update the sex offender registry website and notify the community within a radius of the offender\u2019s address. With each edit of the offender record, the OffenderWatch system automatically updates the department\u2019s sex offender listings on the department\u2019s website and sends email notifications to the public.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe data shared between law enforcement agencies and countries leads to better compliance, more effective investigations and ultimately safer cities and neighborhoods,\u201d said Mike Cormaci, President and co-founder of OffenderWatch. \u201cWhen all of the countries of the Caribbean join our network, OffenderWatch will have 100% of the homes in the Caribbean covered by our reach. OffenderWatch supports more than just the legal requirements of a sex offender registry. Through improved timeliness, accuracy, and completeness, it supports the intent of the law: improved public safety through awareness\u2014hopefully leading to fewer victims.\u201d<\/p>\n There are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. However, agencies and countries often use disparate systems for managing sex offenders. These systems can falter when offenders move from one agency to another or from one country to another (unconnected) jurisdiction, as it falls to the offender to notify the new agency by showing up at their offices to register. This can be an opportunity for an offender to \u201cfall through the cracks\u201d of the registry. OffenderWatch prevents this by automatically notifying and sharing records with destination agencies within the network. All relevant data from all sources and agencies is maintained in a single offender record, improving accuracy, offender accountability, and aiding in public safety.<\/p>\n OffenderWatch will also allow local agencies to easily send real-time alerts to the public when a registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood. The service is available at no cost to the public, and people can sign up to receive email or mail notifications associated with any address-at home, school, work, gym, day care, a park, or more.<\/p>\n As this collaboration with 15 networked countries of the Caribbean improves and streamlines offender management and public awareness, safety in the community is also enhanced, \u201cWith the OffenderWatch technologies, CARICOM governments will be able to focus more on protecting the public and less on time-consuming administrative work.<\/p>\n Using OffenderWatch, all the countries of the Caribbean can instantly share records with each other and any other registering agency in the OffenderWatch within the network. Instead of spending hours researching each new offender and locating old court and registration documents, any country can instantly obtain the full historical record of the offender, packed with related documents and images. This information is vital as registry officers can collaborate with other agencies on child abductions and investigations of absconded offenders. OffenderWatch also connects the agency to improve collaboration with other investigators, all enhancing public safety. Additionally, residents of the Caribbean will have access through websites to search the full Caribbean OffenderWatch network for information on offenders to get the information they need to help keep their families safe in their physical as well as online activities.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s environment of ubiquitous technology, law enforcement must also focus on online safety. According to Camille and Jonathan of CCASC, \u201cSexual predators are unfortunately becoming an increased threat online, especially as kids are on the web more at home while sheltering in place. With a Global Sex Offender\u2019s Registry system police in Trinidad can notify law enforcement in the United States if a Sex Offender resident in the USA is soliciting children in Trinidad in person or online. The end result is improved safety.\u201d<\/p>\n According to UNICEF an estimated 223 million children, 10 percent of the world\u2019s children, have been sexually assaulted; this includes 150 million girls and 73 million boys. Two million children are victims of sex trafficking or pornography.<\/p>\n In 2019, there were more than 45 million images of children being sexually abused online, according to an\u00a0investigation by the\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>. Plus, tips reporting online child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children\u00a0more than doubled<\/a>\u00a0from March 2019 to March 2020. Through the OffenderWatch partnership, CCASC will advocate for CARICOM to be the first group of countries to offer OffenderWatch Safe Virtual Neighborhood (SVN), an app coming soon after the countries fully deploy and integrate within the network, that will proactively alert parents to online contact from registered sex offenders. While registered offenders are required to provide their electronic communications identifiers to be included in the sex offender registry database, this information is non-published, so is generally not available to the public. SVN continually monitors and compares users\u2019 online contacts vs. this non-public data (email address, phone numbers, and registered online user ID\u2019s) and alerts subscribers such as parents to contact law enforcement if a match is identified. Additionally, SVN issues an alert for when a users\u2019 static physical location is an address matching that of a sex offender. This breakthrough technology helps keep kids safe by alerting parents of attempts by an offender in the network to electronically communicate with or lure a child.<\/p>\n