Caribbean Federation of Police Welfare Association blasts ComPol Chester Williams

The situation involving the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams and the President of the Belize Police Association, Corporal Eldon Arzu has attracted the attention of the Caribbean Federation of Police Welfare Associations. The ComPol is not seeing eye-to-eye with Arzu, who was elected to another term as president in January, just before the ComPol deemed that he cannot serve more than two terms.  As the situation continued to spiral, the bank account of the Association was frozen and more recently, Arzu’s salary was also frozen after he was transferred to another department. The matter of the election remains before the courts. But back to the C.F.P.W.A.  Earlier today, it issued a release from its headquarters in Saint Vincent on the deteriorating situation within the police department and it wasn’t kind to the ComPol.  The Caribbean organization says that while it considers the laws of Belize that govern the Police Welfare Association to be inconsistent with modern day practices and procedures, their concern is over the leadership style which has “overridden the inadequacies of the existing laws and made matters worse by imposing a dictatorial style leadership that is transactional and unable to accede to present day practices that embrace mediation as a method of resolving disputes.” It says that the prevailing situation demonstrates an unhealthy deficit in leadership. According to the association, the action of the ComPol is a personal attack on Arzu and it calls on government to respond since it is an abuse of power and an attack on a police officer. The CFPWA also condemns the actions of the COMPOL and calls on the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police to have this matter promptly addressed at their next annual general meeting to ensure that Commissioners of Police practice professionalism and good governance in their leadership roles.  On Wednesday, Williams laid out Arzu’s transfer in the following manner:

On the Phone: Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“But I will also say that we all joined the department knowing that it is a transferable one and it is not as if he was being transferred from one district to another.  The place where he is being transferred is the office that deals with implementation, planning.  It’s like the brain of the department that would look at drafting of policies and the reason why I was putting him there, I spoke to him even before he was transferred to the office and I said to him, “Mr. Arzu is seems to be you’re into personnel welfare, I will put you in this office because the office will deal with drafting of policies and you can work very closely with Mr. Jones and myself in looking at drafting policies that will address the welfare of personnel.”  And he was very, he didn’t express any dissent in terms of wanting to go there, he was like okay, and so I was surprised to see in his claim before the court, he had that as an issue, the matter of his transfer.  Man, we all know that the public service is transferable, the police department is transferable and I had also said to him that he has been a corporal for many years and that it is time that we look to put him somewhere where he can market himself and become promotable so he could be promoted to the next level.  All of that I discussed with Mr. Arzu.  But everything was going fine until, as I said before, he was requested to submit a list of the Police Association accounts and there is where everything fell apart again.  So I stand behind the decision that myself and my senior management team have made in terms of the stoppage of his salary.  If or when he shows up to work then whatever needs to be done in order to deal with the matter will be done and then we move on from there.”