BELIZE CITY, Fri. June 19, 2020– The Belize Police Association (BPA) held elections for its new executive, and for the first time in the history of the organization, a woman has emerged as the holder of the top post. Woman Police Sergeant Jane Usher swept out longtime president of the BPA, Corporal Eldon Arzu, and his team.
Corporal Arzu has been at the helm of the BPA for six terms, but during the last term, which just ended, he and Commissioner of Police Chester Williams got into a squabble which ended up in the Supreme Court after Arzu was stripped of his salary because he had failed to honor a transfer to the Police Department’s headquarters in Belmopan.
Additionally, Commissioner Williams had requested an audit of the BPA funds.
Sergeant Jermaine Hyde, deputy president, received 734 votes, which was more than the president received, which was 729 votes.
During the campaign leading up to Wednesday’s elections, Usher, the daughter of Lenny Jo Usher and Hon. Said Musa, and her 7-member executive team traveled to all police formations throughout the country.
After she was declared the victor in the elections, Sergeant Usher thanked all the police officers who voted for her and those who facilitated the process and rallied behind her team.
In a statement to the media, Sergeant Usher said, “We commit to working hard for them and to move the Police Department and Police Association forward. We campaigned, and we are committed to working for a Police Association and a Police Department that is unified, and that wants to work together to represent the interest of the rank-and-file in terms of their welfare. The Police Association is simply a body to represent the members in their interest in welfare and efficiency.”
“We do want to be the voice and echo the sentiments of the rank and file upwards to the Commissioner of Police so that those issues can be addressed and resolved. I think that, male or female, it’s the person that they voted for and what that person can do. I think women are considered leaders that care, and in order to address welfare issues, you would need some compassion and some passion,” she said.
“At the end of the day, we went out and we focused the campaign on the people; we did not get sidetracked and we did not turn our efforts to negativity or anything like that. We had a mission and we focused on what we wanted to do; we had a plan and we executed that plan,” Usher declared.