eTrace MOU signed
U.S. Embassy and Ministry of Home Affairs sign eTrace Agreement
U.S. Ambassador to Guyana John M. Jones, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) representative David T. Johnson, and Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to grant the government of Guyana access to eTrace, an electronic system used to trace illicit firearms. The MOU established conditions of the partnership between ATF and law enforcement authorities in Guyana regarding policy and procedures for the access and use of eTrace services. The ceremony took place in the conference room of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Brickdam.
eTrace is a paperless firearm trace submission system that is accessible through a secure connection to the World Wide Web. This Internet application provides the necessary utilities for submitting, retrieving, storing and querying firearms trace-related information, allowing for the systematic tracing of firearms recovered from crime scenes. Analysis of firearms trace data can assist in the identification of firearms trafficking patterns, as well as geographic profiling for criminal hot spots and possible sources of illicit firearms. The signing of the MOU is part of an ongoing effort to combat firearms trafficking in the region, consistent with the December 2007 joint CARICOM-U.S. Initiative on Combating the Illicit Trafficking in Small Arms and Light Weapons and Ammunition.
ATF processed more than 300,000 crime-gun trace requests in fiscal year 2008, including traces from 58 countries. The other countries in the region that have eTrace capabilities include Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Mexico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Several Caribbean police forces signed eTrace agreements on March 31, 2009. Seven Central American states signed the same MOU in December 2008.
ATF is a law enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Justice dedicated to preventing and fighting violent crime. More information on ATF and its programs and resources is at www.atf.gov.