ComPol Explains Why Bart Jones Was Assigned to Act This Time

Earlier this year, the Security Services Commission promoted Assistant Commissioner of Police, Doctor Richard Rosado to the post of Deputy Commissioner. It was a promotion that the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams has said came upon his recommendation. Rosado, who held the post of Officer Commanding Eastern Division, was given a new desk in Belmopan, with responsibilities for Operations and Crime. But then in March, Rosado’s colleague, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bart Jones took the matter to court, challenging the promotion on grounds that it was premature. Jones is asking the court to grant him leave to appeal the Security Services Commission’s promotion of Rosado. With that matter now before the courts, some had questions when Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams assigned Jones to act as Commissioner when he left Belize recently on a trip to Mexico. Today, he explained that there’s nothing untoward in the way he assigns his deputies, and that all he’s doing is trying to give them the experience in that seat.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The police department have three copilots. I would really not want to comment on this, but you have asked. I don’t think that there’s a divide between the two gentlemen. I don’t think so. I have seen them working together, and I do not see any issues between them. In the case that Mr. Jones currently has with the Services Commission in respect to the promotion of Mr. Rosado, the Office of the Attorney General, which is a government’s principal legal advisor, had wrote, or had submitted to the courts, that there is no seniority between Mr. Rosado and Mr. Jones; that both gentlemen are on the same level and they arrived at that opinion based on Regulation 26 of the Public Service and Constitutional Regulations, which states that where the promotion date or the appointment date for one officer is within six months of the other, then neither of them is senior to the other. As the Commissioner of Police, I have said to both gentlemen, the fact that you are the two main persons next in line, whenever I leave the country, I’m going to have you hold over interchangeably. Again, the reason for that is to be able to give both of them the experience, in terms of acting in the capacity of the Commissioner of Police. It’s not to favor one over the other. And I think that if anyone should feel that they are being disenfranchised, it should be Bart, because every time I left the country, it is Rosado who I left in charge. It’s the first time I left Mr. Jones in charge, and it should not be seen as favoring anybody, but rather to try and give both that experience. Should the Prime Minister say today or tomorrow he wants to appoint a new commissioner, he can choose from between any of them because both of them would have had that experience. So I don’t want nobody to feel like I am trying to disenfranchise them or treat them in a certain way, which is not consistent with our disciplinary code or whatever the case may be. I try to be fair to both of them.”