ALEXANDER QUITS – Acting Commissioner Of Police Calls Time On 30-year Career

ACTING Police Commissioner Errol Alexander is throwing in the towel…in frustration.

Errol Alexander who took over the top position in the police force in March of last year after Commissioner Vernon Francois’ was sent on leave and later retired, told THE VOICE yesterday that he would not remain in the Force even if he was asked.

“I have opted to proceed on my retirement in April. I wish my successor all the best,” Alexander said.

His announcement came as a surprise seeing that he was one of two persons shortlisted to be interviewed for the position a few weeks ago by the Public Service Commission. The other was Vern Guard, head of the prison service at Bordelais.

The list however was ditched and the whole process abandoned by the Commission for reasons yet to be disclosed . However The VOICE learned that a certain police officer who had applied for the post and was not shortlisted to be interviewed is challenging the process in a court of law claiming to have met the qualifications asked and therefore should have been shortlisted as well.

The Commission has since embarked on another attempt to find a Commissioner of Police running vacancy notices for the post last month in local media outlets, including on the government website. The deadline for receipt of applications for the post was last week Friday.

The notice warned that persons who meet the minimum qualifications and experience may not be considered for the interview and that only those with the best qualifications and experience will be shortlisted for interviews.

Alexander admits that this time around he is not interested in applying for the job.

“A man has to know when to call it a day. By redoing the process I felt it was demoting,” Alexander said.

The first application process calling for suitable qualified persons to apply for the post saw Alexander in a motivated frame of mind, eager to continue with the number of strategies and policies he and his executive had mapped out for the reorganization and re-motivation of the Police force after Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony’s speech on the IMPACS report in March last year.

“I was rather motivated in continuing the work we had started in stabilizing the police force. Along with the present executive the statistics showed that we were heading in the right direction,” Alexander said.

His decision to apply for the post was partly influenced by the executive and family members.

“The executive thought that I should stay to impart the experience that I had gained as a career police officer who worked his way up from the bottom. Remember, the executive comprised mainly new persons almost all of whom were acting in their positions. I too was acting as police commissioner. Therefore the level of confidence of the new persons on the executive was fragile. My confidence level was not fragile. I have been on the executive for a number of years. And having had discussions with my family they all thought that I should stay for another year, but it did not work out as I thought,” Alexander said.

Alexander’s decision to bring an end to his career in the police force has been a talking point within the organization..

He admitted that the first thing he had to do when he came in as acting commissioner was to re-energize and stimulate the entire organization, arouse them back to the level of high productivity which the police force had continuously displayed over the years.

Alexander also inherited the highly controversial Lambirds Academy fiasco which required police intervention .

Soon after the Prime Minister’s IMPACS address came the seven homicides within a month with several persons linking the killings to the Prime Minister’s speech and the low morale that was said to exist in the police force at the time. Many saw the situation as a powder keg just waiting to blow up. Alexander had to deal with this plus the announcement that threats were made on the life of the Home Affairs Minister, Phillip La Corbiniere.

Other major obstacles hampering his duties which he had to work around was the closure of the forensic laboratory at Tapion, which has hampered police investigations in a big way. The situation is so grave that persons arrested for certain crimes have had to be released as investigators await the results from forensic samples sent overseas for testing.

Presently about 42 samples are being waited on. They were promised to arrive in Saint Lucia last month.

Alexander says he will be leaving the force as a happy man knowing that as Commissioner he had instituted some major changes that will augur well for the organization.

“I have done my bit. I am looking forward to civilian life. I am satisfied and gratified with what I have done in the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force. I am leaving as a happy man knowing I did my best to ensure there is some spark of life in the force,” Alexander said.

But despite the struggles he had to encounter in his one year as police commissioner, Alexander had some successes including the restructuring of the Special Services Unit, the creation of a new crime fighting strategy that he says is bearing much fruit today resulting in the calmness into which the country has settled from the Christmas season up to the present.

He lauds his team for their innovation in a number of areas like the bicycle and ATV patrols in the city of Castries; instituting police awards last year that served to boost police morale greatly; the promotion of 42 police officers of the lower ranks, after many of them were in acting positions; the coming onstream of an exchange programme for senior officers with the Jamaican Constabulary, etc.

However despite his accomplishments Alexander is leaving slightly rattled simply because a programme he started for the accreditation of the police force will not come to fruition before he leaves.

“We have been working with the RSS toward the accreditation of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force. We are now going through the process. What this means is that if we get to be accredited we will be doing things similar to the top police forces in the world,” Alexander said, adding that he would have liked to see the process through to its very end.

Alexander had been a member of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force from 1986 graduating from the Police Training School with awards such as Baton of Honours, Best Recruit, Best at Police Duty Subjects and Best at Military Duty Subjects.

He started at the bottom rung of the police ladder before he became acting Commissioner of Police last year.

He has worked in the beat and patrol Unit, traffic department both in Castries and Vieux Fort and as an instructor at the Police Training School in La Toc moving up to become the Commander in Charge there. He served five years as an Inspector and two years as an Assistant Superintendent. He was later promoted to full-fledged Superintendent in charge of Research and Development, Training and Human Resource. As Superintendent he, at one time, was in charge of Corporate Service. His other postings were as Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration/Corporate Affairs.