ComPol Chester Williams Reacts to Guilty Verdict Against Kareem Martinez

Chester Williams

Commissioner of Police Chester Williams reacted to the guilty verdict handed down earlier today against former Corporal of Police Kareem Martinez. Recently, police officers have been at the center of convictions, accused of disproportionate, unnecessary and unreasonable conduct that have ended in irreparable harm. ComPol Williams says that he was expecting the ruling from the court. He also commented on the need for constant training of police officers.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The decision of the court in that particular matter, I think could to some extent indicate the police to the extent that, the public has always been saying that we tend to cover up and we’re not good at investigating our own. We have seen recently a number of convictions in the courts where police officers are concerned, those who have been accused of misconduct. That goes to show again that as a department, we can police ourselves and we are quite capable of falling our members accountable when they run afoul of the law or afoul of our internal rules. So I was expecting that ruling from the court. It’s not surprising to me. We know that we did our best in invest. And as it relates to the comments of the judge, every police organization across the world need constant training and we are no exception. Um, we continue to do training with our officers in different aspects of discipline as well as the law to make sure that they are familiar with the law and most importantly, they carry their duties with the utmost global professionalism. So we welcome the comments from the judge and we certainly will see what we can do to enhance some. Our police officers skills, especially when dealing with situations like as they were confronted on the night when the incident occurred with Laddie Gillett. And we have also used Justice Moore and other judges of the Supreme Court to assist us with trainings so, certainly she’ll be hearing from the police department to see what she can do as well too, to help us to develop our officers. We have a new chief justice – we have a new chief magistrate. The former chief magistrate was very instrumental, likewise in training of police officers. And we hope to get the support from the new chief Magistrate will also lend her assistance in making sure that we true officers, particularly in areas where we think they need to be developed, where it involves human rights and, treating people with dignity rules of the court and these sorts of things.”