Major changes coming to criminal records office

Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson says major changes are underway for the Criminal Records Office (CRO), located in Downtown Kingston.

Anderson, who was speaking during his monthly press briefing yesterday, said the changes will directly impact the economy, as a number of sectors depend the CRO's services for recruitment.

“Over the last few weeks, we have been reviewing our processes at our Criminal Records Office located at 56 Duke Street and our three sub sites located in May Pen, Clarendon, Pompano Bay in St. Mary and Summit in St. James,” said the commissioner.

According to the police, the CRO produced more than 135,000 certificates last year for customers both locally and overseas, and so far this year it has generated approximately 88,000 certificates.

That’s 65% of the reports produced last year, with six months left in the year.

Earlier this year, the fingerprint system at the CRO was updated to further mitigate long wait times.

“We upgraded our Automated Palm and Fingerprint Identification System (APFIS) to a Multi-Biometric Identification System (MBIS). This upgraded system will increase the storage capacity and reduce the processing time taken to generate police certificates,” said Anderson.

In addition to these changes, a testing phase for an online application and appointment system was introduced which has been successful.

According to the Commissioner, the public can expect a “qualitative difference in the customer experience” as they continue to build out the new and improved system.

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