Chester Williams to Start as CEO of New Ministry on Monday

Commissioner of Police Chester Williams will be officially moving over to the Ministry of Constitution and Religious Affairs, Indigenous Affairs, and Transportation on Monday. Williams has confirmed that after serving for over three decades in the police department, he will be taking up the Chief Executive Officer position next week. Williams and the Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa met with the Prime Minister today and discussed Williams’ transition to the ministry. This morning, the career cop confirmed that Friday would be his last day as Commissioner of Police and spoke about his final words to senior officers within the force.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Well I am hoping it is going to be my last day. I’m excited about moving over to the Ministry of Transport, Constitutional Reform, Indigenous People’s Affairs and Religious Affairs. It is going to be a new challenge for me and I am the type of person from time I know myself growing up I have always embraced challenges and I always ensure that whatever task is given to me that I do it to the best of my ability, that I develop a passion and love for it and I do believe once that is done then you are going to be successful at whatever task. And so I am grateful to the Prime Minister for the opportunity being given to me to move over to that ministry and I assure him that I will do my utmost best in making sure that we improve road safety in particular in this country. Like minister rightly alluded in his interview that last year was a very deadly year on our highways and we cannot have another year of that. There’s going to be a greater need for the police and DOT to work more closely together and just this morning I said to minister that I would like to establish a police liaison within the Department of Traffic again with a view to ensure that we remain on the same page when it comes to   road safety. There’s a lot that we need to do in terms of improving the laws to be able to hold drunk drivers, reckless drivers more accountable for their actions so I have some plans that I had been working on even while being Commissioner of Police. I will now be able to move over and get those plans going and see how best we can bring them into fruition to be able to enhance road safety in this country.”

In 2019, he ascended to Commissioner after serving multiple key positions within the department and establishing himself as a no-nonsense cop. Today, he on his rise throughout the Belize Police Department since entering the force at only 17-years-old.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “I said to them that all I have known my entire life is to fight for what I believe I’m entitled to. I believe in work, work for what I deserve, that’s what I believe in and perhaps that’s the reason I have the type of work ethics that I have. I can stay at work 24 hours and I don’t even feel it. Once I’m working I am good to go. Policing requires a lot of commitment, a lot of dedication and most importantly it requires a passion for what you do. It’s a thankless job I can tell you that. So if you intend to come here and believe you’re going to do something for people to sing your praises that is not going to happen. Even when you do good you’re being criticized, that’s the nature of policing and I said to them that even coming into the department with only a primary school leaving certificate then I had to fight and work extremely hard to prove myself among my peers who were more highly qualified and then I had to go back to school to further my education then comes 2008 which you’d know about I was accused, persecuted, convicted and condemned and even despite that I didn’t give up. I recall the words of my mother then she said to me “Son why don’t you just leave those people job and go and do something else.” I said to her “No Ma, I’m not going to do that. I joined the police because I want to be one and I’m not going to allow anyone to take away that opportunity from me.” And so I keep on pushing and then I went to law school to further again my education and then came back and I am happy  to say that since then I have always done my best to make sure I stay above board and serve the people of this country to the best of my ability. I enjoy public service, as much as I am a lawyer, fully qualified lawyer and I can go and practice law, it is not something I want to do. I don’t have a passion for that. My passion is to serve the people.”

In January 2019, the Right Honourable Dean Barrow appointed Williams as Commissioner to replace Allen Whylie.