Assistant Commissioner Crispin Jeffries will assume command on the Police Department
on Thursday, April 30th. A change of command ceremony will be held at the Police
Training Academy at noon on Thursday where Commissioner Gerald Westby will hand
over the command to Jeffries. Westby was top cop for 4 years and is being put
on early retirement as the political directorate is scrambling for an answer
to a spiralling crime problem and wants to infuse the department with a renewed
sense of direction and leadership.
But Jeffries, we are told, is only a transitional figure. Already past retirement
and on a contract, he is expected to hold the post for a year. After that a
new corp of senior officers is expected to compete for the post. Jeffries will
be backed up by five assistant commissioners of police and two of them, Elodio
Aragon Jr. and Noel Leal are leapfrogging ranks to get there. Presently, they
are both superintendents.
That means that three Senior Superintendents Chester Williams, Paul Wade and
Keith Lino are being passed over – which doesn’t bode well for morale
in the command structure. But whatever the case, it’ll be Jeffries’
problem to fix – or at least that’s the view of the political directorate.
In other related news, Senior Superintendent Williams is going to Dangriga
where he will be officer commanding, while the command structure at the Eastern
Division in Belize City is also changing with Russell Blackett being brought
in as second in command.
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