A Microsoft software team is expected in the island this week to start discussions about implementing a US$200,000 computer system to assist local investigators in child kidnapping and human trafficking cases.

The software – called the Child Abduction Tracking System – was donated by Microsoft after talks at the Commonwealth Local Government Conference in Freeport, Grand Bahamas recently.

“This system will allow police to keep track of the island’s children by way of an international database,” State Minister with responsibility for Local Government, Robert Montague told the Observer.

Local government officials said the system is currently being used by police forces to develop a database that they share with each other. Police from Scotland Yard, the FBI and most of the forces in Europe and Australia are already tied into this system.

Montague said the team from Microsoft will not only help train Jamaican police on how to use the computer system, but will also to carry out other discussions about providing assistance to local authorities in a number of other areas.

When fully implemented, the system will help police keep track of the island’s children by way of an international database and if a child goes missing, the information can be uplinked to the system to see if the child is also reported missing in other jurisdictions.

Two weeks ago the local Ananda Alert System was officially launched by Prime Minister Bruce Golding at Jamaica House.

The missing child alert system was named after Ananda Dean, the primary schoolgirl whose headless, decomposing remains were found at Chancery Hall in Red Hills, St Andrew two weeks after she went missing last September.

The alert system will kick in when police get information that a child is missing. The police will then alert media houses who will publish the child’s photograph, details of his/her attire and where he/she was last seen.