Following the end of Crusita Descartes-Pelius’ stint as police commissioner this month, former Deputy Police Commissioner Ronald Phillip has been appointed Acting Police Commissioner. Phillip took on the role on June 15.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre indicated that Descartes-Pelius was only taking the role on a temporary basis, telling reporters “she has been appointed until June.”
Though his time as Acting Commissioner will be brief, Phillip told reporters he will remain in the position until July 30 and has already laid out plans for the future .
According to him, one of the issues he would like to deal with “to appease Saint Lucians” is the situation at the Passport Office.
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“That would be a major milestone; if we can significantly reduce that level of backlog and frustration that is being experienced at the Immigration Department. Within the six weeks I intend to do my best to try to remedy this situation,” Phillip said.
Further, he added, “I think we still have issues to deal with, we still have internal mechanisms we need to strengthen. I still believe that there is a degree for policies… to govern our police action, there is need for force modernization, there is need for us to invest greater… in police officers themselves. We need to get to a stage where we can empower police officers to be leaders to take on some of the issues that (are) confronting us.”
Phillip also praised Pelius-Descartes for her accomplishments and described her stint as “one of success.”
Pelius-Descartes who is currently on leave was first announced as Acting Police Commissioner in October 2022. She was later promoted to police commissioner in February.
“We work very well. We collaborated on issues to address some of the problems… I could attribute her leadership to some of the successes that we would have witnessed, it is just a matter of me carrying on from where she left off,” Phillip said.
