And Compol Chester surely knows the pains of a young officer coming up. He started from the bottom - without a complete education - and built himself up to the Top Cop. Today he reflected in his early life of work - where he started out at 13 in a Ladyville bakery:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"You know, policing is all I know, other than baking bread. Because before becoming commissioner, police I worked as a delivery boy at a bakery. From there, I moved up to, to the mixer. Mixed the bread early in the morning, 3:00 o'lock, after going to the bakery and mix bread."
"And then from there I went to the oven. I became a baker, at age 16, I was the chief baker at the bakery. So I know a lot about baking bread and other pastries. Amd at age 17, I joined the ranks of the police police force then, and so that is all I know. I have certainly worked tirelessly over the years with a view to try and achieve what I have achieved so far. And, I can say to you that I have encountered many setbacks. Jules will tell you. In 2008, what happened to me. I went to hell and back. But I remained steadfast in what I wanted to do, and, I was able to go to law school against all odds, qualified myself, and returned.. And since I became the commissioner of police, there's a lot that I can say I'm proud of. And I was not able to achieve them alone. I have to give credit to my team. We, we work together. Even though at times there is backbiting. There is infighting, but that comes with any organization."
"You can't expect to have, a smooth sail through anything, especially when you have people behind you who are who are ambitious. There are always going to be those who will backbite. And so I learned to work with that and do not allow those things to hinder my path or what I have to do to keep this country safe."
"But we certainly did a lot. If you look right across from this building, you can see the Compstate office. I'm extremely proud of that achievement. There's several things I can list, but I will leave that for when the official day come."
"But one of the most things I'm proud of is the fact that we were able to to bring the murder count below 100 for two consecutive years."
"Again, those are many lives saved, right? And if it is that we see one legacy of, we would have done well, but we saved many, many lives, I can say."
Email
Print