And while Shoman calls on the government to take a stand, Chester Williams today told his commanders to support his successor, Deputy Compol Richard Rosado. He held what may be his last commanders meeting and he urged them not to backbite Rosado the way they did him:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well, my thing to them was basically that I more than likely I will leave office. And, I told them, that they need to throw their support behind the person who is going to be appointed commissioner of police when I leave. I explained to them the importance of them supporting the new commissioner. We are a disciplined organization and whatever you have, if you have something personal against the person who is going to be appointed, you need to put that aside and focus on a professional responsibility, which is to work with the commissioner and making this country safe. The person who is going to be appointed, I, I, I believe that he is capable, he should be able to continue from where I'm leaving off, in enhancing the effectiveness of the police department and making this country safe. So they are pledged that they will support the person. And I do hope that they do as they see and I also said to them that the practice of them calling and briefing the media, when conference is over, that I hope that comes to an end. Confidentiality is extremely essential. Especially at our level, we cannot, if at the top of the department, we cannot keep certain things confidential, then what do we expect of those persons below us?"
"I also told them that the undermining must also stop, whoever is going to be the new commissioner, and they must work together because they have one common objectives, which is to make this country safe."
Jules Vasquez
"When you took over in 2019, January 9th, Mr. Whylie, in his exact speech he referred to undermining, now you are referring to undermining, apparently it's endemic in the culture of the police department."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Look, I said, Jules, you are going to find that anywhere, so long as there are people who are ambitious, there's going to be undermining."
"And it's just a matter of us having to learn to live with it. If you allow the undermining to get the better part of you, then you're not, you're not going to achieve nothing. So I spent my time ignoring undermining and focus on my responsibility to Belizean people."
And in what may be one of his last acts as top cop, a number of "special promotions" came out of the Compol's office today for 9 constables and corporals.
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