Police and probation officers will soon be making spot checks on offenders on parole or probation, National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief told legislators.A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Court Services and Bermuda Police Service allows the two agencies to “coordinate and formalise resources to proactively monitor and report violations or potential breaches of probation and parole orders made by the Courts and the Parole Board,” Minister Perinchief said.“These two agencies have formalised an arrangement to coordinate regularly scheduled and unscheduled visits to the residences to ensure compliance with conditions of curfew, and provide accurate reporting back to the Courts and Parole Board on violations. The execution of this MOU mirrors the commitment of two of the hardest working agencies in the criminal justice system.”Minister Perinchief told the House on Friday that Court Services and the Bermuda Police Service (BPS) had worked together in this manner before and the current arrangement was a modification of the previous effort with elements of a Boston initiative called Operation Night Light included.The Boston programme, the Minister explained, “was created at a time when Boston was experiencing heightened gang violence, a rise in homicide victims under the age of 17, public alarm, increasingly bold behaviour of gang members in courthouses, and criticism by minority community leaders and judges of police “stop and search” tactics.“Probation officers worked independently of police, and curfews were not commonly imposed by the court and were difficult to enforce. In response to those problems, a few probation officers met informally with a few police officers to develop the Operation Night Light model as a more effective way of deterring juvenile violence.“Operation Night Light pairs one probation officer with two police officers to make surprise visits to the homes of high-risk youth probationers during the nontraditional hours. Operation Night Light is one element of a collaborative, comprehensive strategy that was implemented in Boston to address their escalating violent crime rates.”Minister Perinchief said the collaboration between the two agencies had been “spurred by the work of the Inter-Agency Gang Task Force, and added that legislation promised in the Throne Speech, which would “ensure a more structured collaboration” between Court Services and the BPS, was on its way.The move comes after two alleged leading members of Parkside were granted early release from prison after the Parole Board wasn’t told of their gang ties.Jahkiel Samuels and Prince Edness were jailed for separate violent offences but are now back in the community on parole after serving just a third of their sentences behind bars.They applied for release at the earliest available opportunity and were allowed out of Westgate by the Parole Board, which takes into account reports on inmates submitted by the Departments of Corrections and Court Services.However no mention of either offender’s connection to the Pembroke gang was made in the paperwork given to board members.