Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police on CRPWA Release

In late April, the Caribbean Federation of Police Welfare Association blasted Commissioner of Police Chester Williams about the ongoing conflict with Police Association President, Eldon Arzu. The Caribbean association raised concerns over the ComPol’s leadership style, saying he had “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.” Last week, ComPol Williams participated in the annual general meeting of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police held in Grand Cayman and during the conference; the A.C.C.P. looked at the release from the Caribbean Welfare Federation of Police Officers. ComPol Williams says that the regional body agreed that the welfare federation stepped out of line and should not be interfering with the internal business of the Belize Police Department, which is also not a member of the federation.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The view of the A.C.C.P. is that they don’t interfere in the internal running of any individual police department and we also share the view that the welfare federation ought not to. And I will go further to state that the actions of the federation were totally out of order in the sense that while the federation do represent the Caribbean countries, Belize is not a part of that federation and for that reason, they have absolutely no reason to have issued the press release that they did.”