Major shifting and promotions have taken place in the Barbados Police Service with three new officers acting as assistant commissioners, including a woman, the second time in the service’s history.
From the beginning of the month some of the changes went into effect. Among the new faces in the top brass are Acting Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACPs) David Welch in charge of change management and technology services, Barry Hunte in charge of special operations and management services, and Sonia Boyce heading administration and human resources.
The latest assignments were released on Friday and circulated with the service via memoranda.
Hunte and Boyce returned to Barbados last Sunday following an intense 19-week Executive Leaders Programme at the Royton in Coventry, England, a course marketed as preparing the next
generation of leaders.
They both skipped a rank from their substantive superintendent positions to the ACP post, with Boyce being the second woman to reach it, the other being Leila Strickland Boyce who has retired.
The three ACPs who have left the service within a short space of each other, creating the vacancies, are David Griffith, Antonio Forte and Sylvester Louis.
The others acting at the ACP level are John Boyce, brother of Deputy Commissioner Erwin Boyce, who will have the command assignment of crime, while his counterpart Jefferson Clarke has responsibility for territorial policing.
Detective Mitchell Roach, who came to national attention during the police’s solving of a number of serious crimes, including illegal guns and drive-by shootings in the latter part of last year, received a double promotion from Station Sergeant to Assistant Superintendent, as did Dwayne Cumberbatch and Peter Barrow.
Likewise Vernon Farrell, another serious crimes investigator, moved up two ranks from Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) to Senior Superintendent, along with two others. In all, five officers rose to that rank and Farrell, former senior investigating officer – Criminal Investigation Department (CID) – will now be the officer in charge of the CID with Superintendent Markeith Gibson-Woodroffe moving from being in charge of the financial crimes division to being deputy divisional officer, CID.
Seven have risen to inspector, nine sergeants to station sergeants (with another expected to take effect next month) and 18 constables to sergeant.
The reassignments, some of which will take effect from this week and the others from July 14, include acting Senior Superintendent Christine Stanford moving from being deputy divisional commander, Bridgetown, to officer in charge of the Bridgetown Division.
Dale Crichlow, the acting Superintendent previously assigned as the Divisional Commander, special operations management services division, will shift to Deputy Divisional Commander, Bridgetown, and Derrick Bobb, another acting Superintendent, will carry the same duties for the north.
Superintendent Anthony Warner, who was in charge of narcotics, will move to being deputy divisional officer in the south; Superintendent Mark White will become officer in charge of research and development, and Senior Superintendent Adrian Broomes will be in charge of special operations management services.
President of the Barbados Police Association Wendley Carter said that the organisation did not get involved in promotions and transfers unless a major issue was brought to its attention, and no such thing had occurred since the release of the information on Friday.
He added that personally, he had no issue with the developments.
When contacted about the impact of the changes, Attorney General Dale Marshall said the posting of police officers and the allocations of day-to-day responsibilities were solely the purview of the Commissioner of Police.
“The Commissioner best knows how he should deploy the men and women under his command, and unlike the last administration, this Government does not get involved in those matters. We have every confidence in the ability of the Commissioner of Police to run the Police Service,” he said. (AC)
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