Security solutions

By Natasha Beckles | Sat, September 01, 2012 - 12:00 AM

Ryan Clarke has sourced security equipment from as far away as Iraq to make sure his four-year-old business brings something different to the local security landscape.

And the former prison officer is prepared to work with Government and law enforcement officials to tackle theft and other crimes.

Clarke, the managing director of Comprehensive Security Solutions, told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY his business was the only one on the island using synthetic DNA to mark personal and commercial property.

In a recent interview he explained that upon leaving the Barbados Prison Service, he “just decided to start doing security as a brief side job for extra income”.

At the time he was chief of security at BICO Ltd, but when people commended his sideline and suggested that he expand, he took their advice.

“I used to work [at BICO] during the day, come home at five in the afternoon, go to work [privately] at six in the evening until five in the morning and then go back to work at BICO again.

“I did that for two years before I hired my first employee,” he said.

Although working day and night proved to be difficult, Clarke said he used the income from his day job to purchase a new piece of equipment each month.

“I found that soon I had a whole cache of items so when it came time for the employment of additional staff, I already had more than 50 per cent of the equipment I needed,” he said.

Today, Clarke employs 30 people and offers 24-hour security services, mobile patrols, security audits, container security locks, and the unique range of products which utilize DNA.

One such product is the property-marking kit that uses lab-generated DNA.

“Each bottle has a unique code so for example if I give you a bottle that is marked B20, another household would have B25,” he said, explaining that the code from each batch is recorded in a secure database to link items to their owners.

“It can be used not only to mark household items but currently it is used to deter robberies in other countries [where warning labels, window stickers and other signage are used to alert thieves and burglars].

“It’s also used to prevent metal theft, which is also a big issue here in Barbados,” he said.

If a criminal touches marked goods, the product is instantly transferred to his skin and clothing where it can remain for up to six months. It is, however, only visible under ultraviolet light.

“A lot of the time the police actually know who the persons are that committed the crime but they may be lacking evidence to actually get the person convicted. This provides that link,” he said.

Clarke noted that the company had not yet done a substantial amount of marketing on this particular product line.

“We only just finished our marketing at the Barbados Diaspora Conference.

“We had a tremendous response to all the products. People were really surprised that a security company actually used this type of technology in Barbados,” he said.

He noted, however, that Government’s assistance would be necessary to fully implement the systems but said the Royal Barbados Police Force would not need to buy any additional equipment.

Clarke said he had sent the relevant information to the Commissioner of Police, Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Attorney General but had not yet received a response.

“One other device that we’ve sent information on is the capability to use our global positioning system services to track persons on bail.

“There’s an ankle bracelet as you would see on TV that attaches to the leg of the person.

“What we observe and why we have gone that route is that persons on bail [often] go and commit the same offence or a similar offence,” he said, noting that there was not enough personnel to monitor all the individuals with a six-to-six curfew.

“They know there is no way to track them or observe them so they basically get away with murder – but if you were able to track them, they would more stay [in] line,” he said.

Clarke suggested that such a tracking system could help reduce the level of taxation.

“For each person who is incarcerated, hard-working persons like you and I have to pay for . . . food, lodging, medical care . . . .

“If we have less people in jail, the taxes shouldn’t be so high,” he said.

Comprehensive Security Solutions also offers personal safety solutions and products to safeguard assets in remote areas where there is no electrical power.

In addition, the company is working with the Alzheimer’s Association and the Association for the Blind and Deaf to offer tracking devices.

Clarke stressed that he wanted the company to be different from other security firms.

“I believe in not doing things the normal way.

“I realized that a lot of security persons we hired from other companies don’t know a lot of the things we show them.

“We have a whole different style of doing our patrols, doing our checks, even writing our reports,” he said.