Commissioner Chester Williams Elected Second Vice President of Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police

For the first time, Belize has representation on the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP). Commissioner Chester Williams was elected as second vice president of the regional body last week. Williams was unanimously selected for the post, as there were no other applicants. Williams says that his new appointment strategically places him on regional police bodies for Central America and the Caribbean, which will aid in the development of policing in Belize.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “For Belize that is something good because it’s the first time that Belize does have a representative on the association for the Caribbean and it’s the first time that we are holding the presidency of the commission. And so for us it’s a very good thing. There’s a lot that we can benefit where both bodies are concerned. At the Interpol General Assembly we had in Vienna Austria our region, Central America region was commended for the good work that we did in trigger five operations which was coordinated again through my effort as the president of the commission where within the Central American region we confiscated over 7,000 illegal firearms and couple tons of cocaine, rescued a number of persons who were victims of human trafficking and human smuggling and we also confiscated a large amount of money. So Interpol we were commended for that extremely effective operation we did within the Central American region. So again for 2024 we have a number of operations lined up to be done. The different subcommittees are functioning to make sure that whatever needs to be done by each of these commissions – we have a commission on gangs which is chaired by our commander of GI3. And again we have a proposed training to be done on gang education so we’ll get the expert from El Salvador he’s going to do the training and then we’ll participate online along with the other countries of the region. And so now that I’m a member of the executive for the ACCP there is a lot that we can do and again what I’m trying to do is to harmonize the efforts of Central America and the Caribbean because we’re so close together if we can harmonize our efforts we certainly can achieve a lot more than we’re achieving right now when the commission and the association are operating separately. So that is what we’re trying to achieve going forward.”

Williams will hold the post until May 2024, when the ACCP will have its next meeting. That meeting is scheduled for May 13 to 14. Williams is also President of the Chiefs of Police and Police Directors of Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Colombia.