Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

The issue of security in the Caribbean homeland is fully encompassing, it covers region-wide issues from military intrusions down to 911 emergencies. Yes, the concern is not World War III, but when someone’s security is threatened, the urgency is always life-and-death. So any efforts to improve homeland security must consider the emphatic view of the beholder:

Just like “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, so too is the perception of security.

Continuing with the series on Security Intelligence, this commentary – 3 of 3 from the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean – focuses on the urgency of security threats. The consideration is given for the need to communicate urgent-emergent situations, proactively and reactively. How can we optimize Security Intelligence (military episodes, border-encroachments and police-crime scenarios) on the ground so as to better secure our Caribbean homeland? All the other commentaries in the series covered these details:

1.    Securing the Homeland – From the Air
2.    Securing the Homeland – From the Seas
3.    Securing the Homeland – On the Ground

Each commentary relates to the Caribbean security apparatus being promoted in the Go Lean regional empowerment effort.

There is no doubt that the subject of Security Intelligence needs a fresh look in the Caribbean. Among the “push and pull” reasons why people have emigrated away from the region, personal security has been listed as a high rationale. As communicated in previous blog-commentaries (see list below), our concern for homeland security is not communism or terrorism – as is the case for our American neighbors – but rather it is the risks and threats of crime and the dread of emergencies. Remediation and mitigation for the Caribbean homeland must focus more on the micro, than on the macro.

For the macro, we are fortunate to be within the border vicinity of the United States. They are a militarized society – boasting the biggest, most equipped Armed Forces in the history of mankind – so we benefit from Pax Americana. This feature was previously detailed as follows:

Pax Americana is not a “de jure” policy of the US government, but rather a “de facto” policy. The spirit of the Monroe Doctrine is still imbued in US foreign policy. This implies that any European aggression in the Americas is an affront to the US. Practically, the US strong military ensures peace in the region. There is no need for massive military output by Caribbean states… Previous expressions of Pax Americana have resulted in a trade embargo for Cuba.

Pax Americana will not address all of our security needs. The American priority is America. We need our own resources to prioritize our needs and our solutions. How many satellites does the US have pointing to Caribbean neighborhoods? How many “Persons of Interest” are being surveilled for unbecoming activities? These are good questions, and the answers correspond with this point made in a previous blog-commentary:

[The US has a] security commitment to their Caribbean neighbors, but the amount they devote is such a piddling – they prioritize 0.1968% of the total security budget towards the region – that the Caribbean should not be lulled into complacency. We need our own security solutions!

For the micro, we see the need to remediate and mitigate crime; accepting that this challenge is both an “Art” and a “Science”. We have to rely on security professionals – Soldiers, Sailors and Police – to do this job. When there are failures in these executions, we all feel the pressure in society. This is not just academic, this is life-and-death. The result could be an alarming crime problem that draws the attention of local, regional and international stakeholders. This attention can dissuade inter-trade activities for our Caribbean region.

For the micro, we also see the need to optimize ‘Emergency Management’; this too is defined in the book Go Lean…Caribbean as both an “Art” and a “Science”. The book embarks on the strategy to integrate Emergency Management (Preparation and Response) into the regional homeland security efforts. Therefore the issue of Security Intelligence is of serious concern, requiring serious solutions if we want to ensure that all our stakeholders – residents, tourists, trading partners – are safe and secure within our borders.

This quest is not just a desire, it is also a job description, as related in the first submission in this series. According to the implied Social Contract between citizens and their governments, citizens are required to surrender some of their natural rights and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for added protection of their remaining legal rights. This Social Contract authorizes the State to raise a militia and establish police forces to ensure public safety and protections against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Fulfilling this job responsibility is a BIG deal; and very expensive, where some governmental entities spend the lion-share of their budgets on their security fulfillments. This is all due to the one ingredient that is most expensive: Personnel.

The Go Lean book presents a strategy for better securing the homeland by employing new Security Intelligence tools to optimize the investment in people. While the approach is to ensure homeland security by confederating a regional force – military and police – under the guise of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), most of the Security Intelligence initiatives considered here are on the State-side of the Federation/member-state separation-of-powers line. The Go Lean/CU approach is to leverage the size of the CU to deploy investments too big, out-of-reach for anyone one member-state alone.

Consider these Security Intelligence solutions that will bring great benefits, protections, to any community:

These solutions reflect the need for regional oversight, as envisioned in the book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic entire Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU roadmap is designed to elevate Caribbean society by these prime directives:

• Optimization of the economic engines; growing the regional economy.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
• Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

All of these foregoing features relate to this topic of Unified Command & Control. The Go Lean book stressed the effectiveness and efficiency of this strategy, for protecting life and property of all Caribbean stakeholders: residents and visitors alike. This is why the book posits that some deployments are too big for any one member-state to manage alone – especially with such close proximities of one island nation versus another – there are times when there must be a cross-border multi-lateral coordination. This vision is defined early in the book (Pages 12 – 14) with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence:

x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices of criminology … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

Unified Command & Control requires an efficient collaboration of the regional stakeholders delivering security solutions in the Caribbean. The Go Lean book describes this effort as heavy-lifting and the required oversight as agile or “lean”. The concept of “lean” is very prominent in the Go Lean book (and movement), even adapting the title, Go Lean, for this quest.

The focus of the Go Lean book has been towards economics and security from the start. While there is no plan to amass any great Army or Navy, there is the plan to “double-down” on efficient, agile, lean coordination for the homeland’s security. Notice this quotation from the book (Page 103):

Unified Command & Control with State Militias and Police
The CU is not waging a Cold War against a Super-Power, so there is no need for a military-industrial complex. There is only the need to secure the economic engines in the region, and to assuage against the regional threats that arise. As such, most CU homeland security initiatives will be targeting regional policing needs. So the CU security institutions will lock-step with the police & militias of the member-states. The CU will enhance this collaborative effort with advanced monitoring systems, crime laboratories and tactical response units – a complete unified command & control eco-system.

Previous blogs/commentaries also exclaimed societal benefits from pursuits in regional coordination for homeland security; consider this sample of previous blogs, and the submissions on drones:

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to better secure the Caribbean homeland and foster better regional coordination. The list is as follows:

So the issues raised in this series on Homeland Security, and the proposed Intelligence Gathering & Analysis solutions are all of serious concern. These allow for our vision of an elevated society to be fully manifested today and in the future. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix: ShotSpotter Overview

Title: Is reducing gun violence a priority in your city?

The communities most affected by gunfire are least likely to call it in. With fewer than 1 in 5 shooting incidents reported to 9-1-1 [Emergency Reporting], gun crime is vastly underreported. When 9-1-1 calls are made, unfortunately the information provided is typically inaccurate. Without knowing exactly where to respond, police waste valuable time and resources driving block by block looking for evidence as criminals escape the scene. Dispatching officers to an active shooting without all available intelligence is a threat to officer safety and needlessly places the public at risk.

Intelligence-Led Policing
ShotSpotter gunfire data enables intelligent analysis. With that, law enforcement can move from the reactive to the proactive. ShotSpotter has been called “a force multiplier” because it provides critical information for better, more timely resource allocation — especially important as agencies are being asked to do more with less.

ShotSpotter Flex instantly notifies officers of gunshot crimes in progress with real-time data delivered to dispatch centers, patrol cars and even smart phones. This affordable, subscription-based service enhances officer safety and effectiveness through:

• Real-time access to maps of shooting locations and gunshot audio,
• Actionable intelligence detailing the number of shooters and the number of shots fired,
• Pinpointing precise locations for first responders aiding victims, searching for evidence and interviewing witnesses.

Source: Retrieved September 14, 2016 from: http://www.shotspotter.com/law-enforcement

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Appendix VIDEO 1 – ShotSpotter in San Francisco – https://youtu.be/1MiKY1ADAAU

Published on Oct 8, 2014 – ShotSpotter gunfire data enables intelligent analysis. With that, law enforcement can move from the reactive to the proactive. ShotSpotter has been called “a force multiplier” because it provides critical information for better, more timely resource allocation.

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Appendix VIDEO 2 – Top 5 Drone Inventions you Must Have – https://youtu.be/_l6CQRHIGyg

Published on Jun 22, 2015 – Drone Inventions you never knew about …

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Appendix VIDEO 3 – ROBOT TANK DRONE: Unmanned Ground Vehicle | RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!  – https://youtu.be/HpECV7wGZwI

Published on Feb 24, 2016 – Estonian defense company Milrem took the wraps off its robotic Tracked Hybrid Modular Infantry System (THeMIS) – a “first-of-its-kind modular hybrid Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV)” that acts as a multi-mission vehicle platform to assist or replace soldiers on the battlefield.