The British Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, visited Miami from 31 August to 1 September 2009 to deepen UK-US cooperation on crime. His vist specificially focussed on organised crime, policing, drugs, child protection, and border security.

The Home Secretary meet with various law enforcement agencies including:

• A visit to the Joint Inter-agency Task Force (South) - JIATF(S) - Key West
• The Miami Police Department and Police Chief John Timoney
• Maureen Horkan, Director, Florida Child Predator CyberCrime Unit
• Chris Maston, Miami Port Director, US Customs and Border Protection

Miami Police Chief John Timoney, who is currently the President of the Police Executive Research Forum said:

“Along with other U.S. Chiefs I have worked extensively with British police, especially the Met, in areas of mutual concern from Terrorism, Serious Organised Crime to ordinary street crime which daily affect the quality of life in our large cities. In addition PERF has had a long working relationship with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, as it transitions to a more diverse police service”.

The Home Secretary said:

“Keeping our citizens safe is the single most important purpose of Governments the world over. Just as the United States and the UK have co-operated over many years to combat crime and maintain our national security, today we face new challenges together such as cyber-crime, maintaining our border security, and the direct and indirect challenges that terrorism presents.

Quite simply, we could not do our job without the help of our international partners.  The close relationship between the UK and the United States is vital to our intelligence gathering and to the operations each country conducts to protect our citizens and prevent crime”.

In addition to his visits to Miami and Key West, the Home Secretary also traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with key members of the Obama Administration and Chicago to explore their policing efforts and meet with local UK Visa staff.

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