Police Commissioner Erla Harewood Christopher has hailed the recent 37th Annual Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) Conference as a success, as her regional counterparts gathered for five days of talks in Trinidad and Tobago. 

The theme of this year’s conference was “Transnational Organized Crime, a Growing Threat to Regional Security”.

“Caribbean Commissioners of Police in collaboration with other key law enforcement partners were able to engage in extensive and in-depth dialogue and planning in matters related to the security of our individual countries and the Caribbean region as a whole. The conference provided the rare opportunity for Caribbean Commissioners of Police to sit in one space to share our experiences and synergize our strategies to give us the desired efficiency and effectiveness in addressing the crime challenges that confront us in our respective jurisdictions. I am optimistic that our collaborations will translate into effective actions that will positively impact law enforcement and assist in reducing the scourge of crime that is affecting the citizens in all our island states,” she said.

Commissioner Harewood-Christopher agreed with the statement made by National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds at the Opening Ceremony of the conference on Monday that “As globalization has expanded international trade, so too the range of organized criminal activities has broadened and indeed diversified”.

“Acknowledging the dynamic nature of crime and the apparent migration of certain criminal activities to the region, Caribbean Commissioners of Police deliberated on the need for police departments to be effective in the deployment of their limited resources and to collaborate more on crime fighting initiatives to allow for a more integrated approach to addressing transnational organized crime,” she said.

The conference follows the recent Regional Symposium on Crime, in which CARICOM leaders gathered in T&T to discuss crime as a public health concern.