During the past year, as president of the IACP, I have had the opportunity to meet our members and law enforcement partners around the globe and witness firsthand the advantages of IACP’s status as an international organization. It has been a truly remarkable and eye-opening experience.

From meeting with police leaders from around the world at the INTERPOL Annual General Meeting in Indonesia, to discussing the challenges facing the National Police of Colombia with the newly elected vice president of Colombia, to delving into key issues such as drugs and firearms with the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police in Aruba, I have experienced the power of international collaboration and the sharing of ideas, information, and solutions in improving global security. While it is inarguably true that every country—indeed, every community—has its own particular high-priority issues and its own challenges, it is also true that many challenges for law enforcement and for security are globally shared and should be addressed as such.

In addition to the international opportunities mentioned previously, IACP has also been able to host or participate in the following meetings and events around the world during the past year:

• Committee on Terrorism midyear meeting (London, England)

• Meeting with National Police of Colombia director and senior staff to discuss potential collaboration (Bogota, Colombia)

• IACP-initiated forum on 21st Century Policing in the Digital Age, hosted by IACP World Regional Chair, Garda Síochána Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan (Dublin, Ireland)

• Meeting with the heads of the Taiwan National Police Agency, National Immigration Service, and Criminal Investigation Bureau, along with other key staff (Taipei, Taiwan)

• Listening session with law enforcement leaders from across Canada on the issues, challenges, and solutions important to them, and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Meeting (Montreal, Québec)

• Meeting with Interpol’s Secretary General, Jürgen Stock, to discuss mutually supporting efforts and potential collaborations (Lyon, France)

• Meeting with French National Police Director Jean-Marc Falcone along with Police Liaison to the United States, and the head of the Directorate of International Cooperation (Paris, France)

• Meeting with director of the German Federal Criminal Police, the Bundeskriminalamt (Berlin, Germany)

In the upcoming months, IACP will also be participating in the European Police Chiefs Convention in The Hague, Netherlands, and the Annual Meeting of the Association of South East Asia National Police in Singapore.

As evidenced by our international outreach during the past year, IACP’s members and partners span the globe—representing 146 countries—and IACP’s influence is just as widespread.

A number of global issues affect law enforcement organizations everywhere, regardless of size or type (federal, state, local, and so forth), including terrorism, transnational crime, cybercrime, Going Dark, immigration, and geopolitical instability in some regions, to name a few of the many, many common issues. In addition to these cross-border issues, we are all striving to accomplish the same overarching goal—to protect our communities and fellow world citizens from crime, threats, and related dangers.

As real as these global dangers and threats are, collaboration and the sharing of ideas, information, and solutions can provide us with a way forward. In today’s digital world, we need not be isolated or try to combat these threats alone. Every law enforcement agency has something to offer its colleagues, and IACP is working to facilitate this collaboration in two key ways: (1) by ensuring that the association leadership is consistently engaging with law enforcement leaders worldwide and (2) by constantly growing our membership to include the thousands of law enforcement thought leaders around the world, from chiefs to patrol officers.

In addition, one of the best ways for IACP members to engage with their colleagues around the world is at the IACP Annual Conference and Exposition—in 2016, representatives from 80 different countries attended IACP’s flagship event. If you will be joining us in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this October, I encourage you to make an effort to meet and connect with our members from countries across the globe. The power of IACP is in its members—and by working together to tackle crime, violence, and related issues, we all become better at serving and protecting our communities from domestic and international threats.

I look forward to seeing you at IACP 2017!