Over 100 private and national security groups are expected to meet in Jamaica, in June, to participate in the first Caribbean Home Business and National Security Exposition.

Estimated to cost more than $4 million, the three-day exposition will be held at Independence Park in Kingston, from June 11 – 13 with the objective of facilitating local and regional discussion on the security industry. It is endorsed by Police Commissioner Francis Forbes.

“As head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, I fully recognise and appreciate the value of the partnerships in this ever-changing environment,” Forbes said in a message read by his deputy, Tilford Johnson, during a press conference at the commissioner’s Old Hope Road offices to launch the exposition last week. “I am pleased to endorse this, the first staging of the Caribbean Home, Business and National Security Exposition.”

Repeating an appeal for communities to regroup and join the security forces in challenging “the scourge of crime and reduce the burgeoning cost of personal, industrial and national security”.

Lisa Ann O’Gilvie, managing director of Caribbean Events Group, which is co-ordinating the exposition, said the show is geared towards increasing discussion and collaboration on personal, commercial and industrial security concerns in various regional industries. She added that it will be an opportunity to share technology and networking in the region.

For his part, Johnson challenged Caribbean Events Group to go beyond providing or facilitating security services but, rather to create an organisational culture that views law enforcement and other public safety activities as critical and indispensable allies in the fight against crime and social disorder.

Private Security Regulation Authority (PSRA) executive director, Wesley Moss, in endorsing the exposition called upon the 235 private security companies with a workforce of over 14,000 security guards to endorse the exposition.

O’Gilvie hopes that the exposition will become an annual event.