Chester Williams Out as Police Commissioner, Accepts New CEO Role

He is the longest serving Police Commissioner, but tonight, he is reportedly being discarded by the Chief Executive Officer for Home Affairs.  Last week, Chester Williams, rejected the narrative that he was being forced to relinquish his powers as the commissioner and to only perform as a caretaker.  A letter indicating such had circulated last week which Williams denied seeing.  Tonight, however, he has conceded to the existence of such a correspondence.  He reiterated, however, that the CEO does not have the legal right to send him such a letter, and that to avoid unnecessary fuss, he has decided to bow out gracefully.  As has been reported, Williams has been offered an elevation to CEO for Constitution and Religious Affairs, Indigenous Affairs and Transportation which he officially takes up on Monday.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “The truth is I am not a person that likes adversities like that. Other adversities in terms of executing my duties and getting into conflict with persons who are not complying with the law or even with the media I could deal with that. But when it comes to having conflict within the workplace I don’t like that at all. As much as I enjoyed and loved being a police officer and believe you me this has been my career, I worked thirty three years to be where I am and I was extremely unpleased with the letter and like you rightly said the CEO has not authority to have wrote the letter that she did. I had already explained to our minister Kareem what I intend to do before leaving. We discussed and we agreed on certain things and so I was surprised by the letter. None the less to be able to avoid any fighting, in house fighting, I decided that you know what it’s best that I pack up and leave and move over to my new area of responsibility. Certainly it had to do with, and I will be honest, it has a lot to do with that indeed. I don’t want to have a fight with nobody. It is unnecessary. We already have the criminals out there that we need to fight, I don’t think there’s a need for us to fight amongst ourselves so to avoid any issues with anybody I said you know what it’s best I move and get out of people’s way.”

In the letter, dated March 28, CEO Sharole Saldivar essentially told the Police Commissioner that he is to act only as a caretaker.  Additionally, she notified him that he is not authorized to sign off on transfers or promotions.  It does seem like a rushed exit, but according to Minister Kareem Musa, this is not the case.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “During this transition period while it is that we would hope for a seamless smooth transition there are certain actions and certain decisions that can be made that can affect the department moving forward and so it’s just a reminder in terms of the transition you know it has cost implications for transfers, it has cost implications for promotions. Let us try to make the transition as smooth as possibly because to necessarily the new commissioner of police woulda agreed to these transfers and so we have to make sure that we preserve the status quo as best as possible and that’s how I see the letter just saying let’s preserve the status quo as we transition. It think the Commissioner late last year or early this year had mentioned to the media and to the nation that he would be departing this year. It’s not pushing out at all, it’s elevating, graduating even to the next level of CEO. He did indicate that he wanted to serve in his capacity as a public servant, he wanted to continue in that role and to me that is an elevation. You might not see it that way but it is an elevation.”

Reporter: Your home affairs would have been a natural progression.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “We already have a CEO of Home Affairs and like I said the Prime Minister felt it fitting that the commissioner would do an excellent job. As you know we have not had a CEO in the Ministry of Transport I think for at least six months prior to the election and so there was that vacancy there.”

Love News understands that Chester Williams has begun his familiarization meetings with those in the ministry