The St Vincent-headquartered Caribbean Federation of Police Welfare Associations (CFPWA) made the call in a strongly worded statement on Tuesday in which it condemned recent attacks on and murders of police officers in several Caribbean countries.

“The CFPWA . . . calls for harsher penalties to be applied to those who attack police officers. We stand firmly behind the calls for the death penalty to be applied to anyone found guilty of killing a police officer. We urge the countries with the death penalty on the books to use it; hang them. They need to be put to the gallows in front of their families and friends,” the organisation said. 

“It must be made unequivocally clear to criminals that when you take the life of an agent of the state, you have given up your right to life when you are found guilty in a court of law,” it continued.

Last month, the CFPWA issued a statement expressing concern about attacks on lawmen across the region as they carried out their duties.

Since then, it said, it had learned that two more officers had been killed – one when his car was firebombed and the other was shot.

“It appears that the attacks on and the killing of police officers have been normalised instead of being viewed as an attack on the state,” it said in its statement on Tuesday. 

“We note with great disappointment that very few voices have come out to condemn these acts against our members, yet many will come out promptly in defence of criminals. A police officer has a family too. We want to ask, where is the public outrage or outcry when a police officer is attacked or killed?”

The CFPWA, which represents the welfare issues and concerns of more than 40,000 police officers, urged legislators around the region to make the necessary amendments to reflect harsher penalties for people who attack agents of the state.