Michael A DeSilva, Commissioner of Bermuda Police Service and President of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP), highlights the necessity for inter-agency co-operation and collaboration between police forces in the Caribbean in the modern fight against crime.
In 1986, 11 Commissioners of Police from the Caribbean region assembled in Jamaica and established the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP), an organisation designed to promote co-operation between Caribbean police forces for greater regional security. The members formulated a constitution and developed objectives that included the suppression of drugs and organised crime, the exchange of criminal information and intelligence, sharing of training and other services, and the development of effective law enforcement management techniques.
The founding members of the ACCP quite rightly recognised the need for inter-agency co-operation and collaboration between police forces in the 1980s, but they could not have foreseen the breadth and depth of future threats that would ultimately emerge. They would not have imagined that crimes could be committed within their countries by people physically located somewhere else, all through the use of a computer. They would not have grasped the concepts of internet crimes including fraud, child exploitation, and the compromise of electronically stored data. They might not have imagined that their citizens could be radicalised remotely by people in other countries and lured off to far-away lands to participate in violent extremism and terrorism. They would have been unaware of the degree to which science would play a significant role in the future of law enforcement – and criminality – especially through the advancements in forensic and digital technologies…
Michael A DeSilva
Commissioner of Bermuda Police Service and President of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police
