Commish shakes 'em up - Senior cops face wide-scale transfers for 2011
Published:Thursday | December 30, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
AT LEAST 14 of the 19 divisional commanders, two of the five area commanders and the head of the Mobile Reserve are to be shifted in the first massive shake-up of the leadership of the police force since Owen Ellington assumed the office of commissioner in April.
Ellington, who started acting as commissioner in November 2009, announced the transfers in a closed-door meeting with his officers yesterday.
He, however, told members of the media that the public would have to wait until tomorrow, New Year's Eve, to get the details.
"I had a meeting with my officers and I discussed some pending transfers," Ellington said, as he emerged from the meeting at the Police Officers' Club in St Andrew.
"The procedure is that we discuss the transfers with the officers first. If everything is settled, in terms of the movement, we publish them in the Force Orders next and then we share the publications with the media."
The commissioner added: "All I said to them (the officers) is that some movement will have to take place because we need to have the very best talent in the areas of greatest demand and that's what we discussed this morning, and I have full agreement from the officers that they are willing to move."
Ellington would not say when the transfers would take effect, but Gleaner sources later reported that persons are preparing to move at the start of the new year.
According to the sources, Senior Superintendent of Police Steve McGregor, in charge of Kingston Central; Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, at St Andrew South; and Superintendent Derrick Knight - St Andrew Central, will not be moved.
The other divisional commanders expected to miss the transfer are Superintendent Michael Bailey of Kingston Eastern and Superintendent Anthony Castelle, who was recently appointed to head St Catherine North.
The sources also indicated that Assistant Commissioner Derrick Shand, from Area Two (St Ann, St Mary and Portland); and Senior Superintendent Ray Palmer, who has been acting as an assistant commissioner in Area Five (St Andrew North, St Thomas, St Catherine), are the two area commanders who will be reassigned.
The other area commanders, assistant commissioners Denver Frater, Kingsley Robinson and Gervis Taylor will remain.
Head of the Mobile Reserve, Assistant Commissioner Leon Rose, is also to be replaced by a well-known crime-fighter whose name is being withheld.
The sources pointed to one of the more interesting transfers which will see Superintendent Linette Martin Williams being shifted from Trelawny - which has recorded 26 murders since the start of this year - to St James where 186 people have been killed.
Deputy Superintendent Merval Smith, who made his name on the streets of the Corporate Area, is heading to St Catherine South to help deal with the criminal gangs which have been creating mayhem in Portmore.
Other well-known young lawmen will move to some of the hot spots where the police are struggling to get a handle on crime.