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New DPS chief: Boosting morale is top agenda
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Posted on Mar 05 2006
The new commissioner of the Department of Public Safety has put in on his top agenda to boost the morale of local law enforcers.
Barely a week in office, acting DPS Commissioner Ernest Williams said he planned to focus on morale issues in his few weeks as the new head of the department, which he observed employed a lot of hardworking people.
“People always work with you if they know that you work with them and support them. I just want to assure them that I support them in everything they do,” Williams said.
He added that he planned to spend the next 30 to 60 days evaluating the overall police organization and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the existing system.
He also bared a plan to standardize the way business was done in the department.
On a personal note, Williams said that he and his wife had been planning to move to the islands for the past eight to nine years. “I was looking forward to coming here and taking a job that would be challenging. I think I got that,” said Williams, a son-in-law of former Covenant Party chairman Martin Manglona.
Williams was appointed to serve as the acting DPS commissioner, replacing John Wabol of the Fire Division effective Feb. 28, 2006.
He is a military policeman for the U.S. Army for the last 20 years, including eight years as an Army officer. His last assignment was with the Criminal Investigation Division of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he served as paratrooper.
“Mr. Williams is highly qualified and the administration has high confidence in his ability to direct the operations of the Department of Public Safety,” Gov. Benigno R. Fitial had said of his new appointee.
