COP Atlee Rodney elected to Presidency of ACCP

Antigua and Barbuda’s Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney was elected to the
presidency of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police at its just
concluded 37 th annual general meeting and conference, in Trinidad and Tobago.
Commissioner Rodney said his election was unanimous and that he is proud to
have been selected by his peers to head the regional body, grouping together 25
police commissioners across the Caribbean, from Haiti in the north to Suriname in
the south.
“The theme of the conference was’ Transnational organized crime; a growing
threat to regional security. This was our theme and all the discussions and
presentations focused on how we can address transnational organized crime
because that is what we recognize is a threat to regional security. Criminals do not
respect borders, so they would obviously work from one jurisdiction to the next,
affecting individual states and collectively as a region. There were a number of
presentations along that line. We had presentations from amongst ourselves as well
as from organisations and institutions such as the University of the West Indies,”
he reported.
He added that there was also a presentation from INTERPOL and how that
international crime agency can assist Caribbean states tackle the issue of
transnational organized crime; another notable presentation came from the US
Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), among others.
Rodney said the commissions agreed that the organisation's executive will utilize
technology to have monthly meetings to discuss matters of concern. “In my
inaugural address, I called on all of us to work closer together. Basically, what has
happened is that some commissioners remain in isolation and the appeal I made is
that we have to speak more frequently, we need to work closer together, and we
need to exchange best practices,” he added.
He announced the formation of an entity that will serve as a storehouse of
information from which all police commissioners can share.
Commissioner Rodney said along with crime fighting he also wants to focus on
training for police officers locally and throughout the region.