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Caribbean po­lice com­mis­sion­ers be­gan a five-day meet­ing here, amidst calls for calls for greater at­ten­tion and sup­port for the men­tal health of Po­lice of­fi­cers and a warn­ing against the glo­ri­fi­ca­tion of crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty be­ing used as tools to se­cure po­lit­i­cal pow­er.

Ad­dress­ing the open­ing of the 39th an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing of the As­so­ci­a­tion of Caribbean Com­mis­sion­er’s of Po­lice (AC­CP), Guyana’s Pres­i­dent Ir­faan Ali called on gov­ern­ments and op­po­si­tion par­ties in the re­gio to cre­at crime se­ri­ous­ly.

“Crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty is not an op­por­tu­ni­ty to get in­to gov­ern­ment,” he said, not­ing that crime erodes pub­lic trust in a democ­ra­cy, re­sult­ing in that sys­tem to be put on its “knees”.