As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice (ASP) Avril Fran­cis, of the Spe­cial Vic­tim Unit, is stress­ing the crit­i­cal need for col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween law en­force­ment and so­ci­ety to com­bat vi­o­lence against women and chil­dren.

“We can­not do this on our own,” she stat­ed, high­light­ing the im­por­tance of col­lec­tive ac­tion.

ASP Fran­cis made the com­ments dur­ing the 16 Days of Ac­tivism Against Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence event in San­gre Grande on Thurs­day.

She ap­pealed to the com­mu­ni­ty to take an ac­tive role in iden­ti­fy­ing and as­sist­ing vic­tims, em­pha­sis­ing that fight­ing do­mes­tic vi­o­lence re­quires vig­i­lance and com­pas­sion from every­one.

Her col­league, Sergeant Mills Wa­ters, not­ed that men suf­fer­ing from do­mes­tic vi­o­lence al­so need sup­port and recog­ni­tion.

“They need to know that here in San­gre Grande, we care as well, and we will part­ner with every per­son in our so­ci­ety to make things right,” she said.

ASP Fran­cis en­cour­aged par­tic­i­pants to raise aware­ness and in­spire hope, urg­ing the en­tire San­gre Grande com­mu­ni­ty, from To­co to Ma­yaro and Rio Claro, to re­main com­mit­ted to ad­dress­ing do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

As the Christ­mas sea­son ap­proach­es, ASP Fran­cis re­mind­ed at­ten­dees of their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect and sup­port oth­ers in their com­mu­ni­ties.

“If you know of a vic­tim—whether it’s a neigh­bour, friend, sis­ter, or broth­er—please as­sist,” she im­plored.

“Help­ing doesn’t al­ways have to be phys­i­cal,” she ex­plained, not­ing that emo­tion­al and fi­nan­cial abuse are al­so sig­nif­i­cant is­sues.

Sev­er­al se­nior of­fi­cers and po­lice units par­tic­i­pat­ed in the march.