By L.K. Hewlett
St. Kitts Reporter
A new Commissioner of Police (COP) may be named in the near future says Minister of National Security Hon. Dwyer Astaphan.
During a broadcasted interview Astaphan said the police force was being re-organised and that a succession plan for the COP has been in the works for some time. He also said that the plan did not come into being after COP Robert Jeffers had suffered a stroke and was hospitalized about two months ago.
“Regardless of the medical situation with Jeffers, and of course we are very sympathetic to that, it has always been the case that we have been looking at a succession plan. Different officers have been rotated around to be given different exposures, different perspectives, of the leadership. The general public will see in the near future the crystalising come out of that effort. It’s not been any cloak and dagger thing, from time to time different people have acted in different positions. We don’t anticipate any hiccups in completing this process,” the Minister said.
Astaphan said that it was unfortunate that Jeffers was not well but they had to move on and that the government would advise the public accordingly. He said that in the meantime, they would handle the matter elegantly and not ‘do unnecessary things to traumatize people’.
Astaphan refrained from giving any definitive answer to whether Jeffers was on sick leave or had retired. He would only say that Superintendent Stafford Liburd is the Acting COP and that the government hoped to make an announcement as to the new COP in the very near future.
