Islands Business - Former Fiji Police Commissioner urges support for successor

SUVA, Fiji (FIJI LIVE) ---- Former Fiji police commissioner Commodore Esala Teleni has left behind a strong message of support for his successor, acting Commissioner Joeli Baleilevuka. The Fiji Police Force website reports that Teleni encouraged all senior officers to support his replacement. The website said that in an emotional farewell to his officers at the Police Headquarters at Centrepoint after announcing his resignation last week, Commodore Teleni advised them to work as a team for the betterment of the force. “I might be away but my heart will be with you, love each other and work as a team,” the website quoted him as saying. “Thank you for being with me for three years. Thank you for allowing me to work with you, and thank you for all your support. “Continue to build this police force to be firm, relevant and effective.” Commodore Teleni took up the force’s reigns on July 1, 2007. The website said he was tasked to repair the force’s image and the morale “which has been greatly tarnished over the years often leading to its inefficiency to perform”. “What he leaves behind now is a legacy and the reorganised thinking and approach to police operations from being crime focused to being people focused,” the article said. “When we focus on people we have the chance of getting to them before they commit the crime, focusing on areas of solving the case after the crime is committed is not fixing the problem but rather offering only a short term solution,” Commodore Teleni said. Meanwhile, the new man at the helm of Fiji’s police force wants to ensure that law and order is maintained through a high level of police visibility. Acting Police Commissioner Joeli Baleilevuka said he will continue to strengthen the objectives set out by his predecessor Commodore Esala Teleni. “What I am going to do now is to strengthen some of our corporate objectives that he has put in place,” Baleilevuka said. “Our maintenance on the questions raised this morning is going to strengthen that high level of police visibility (which) is out there in the streets, ensuring that law and order is well controlled.” He also said there would not be any changes to the hierarchy of the police force. “To me it’s like now I am wearing two hands as deputy commissioner and acting commissioner so I find that it is not high priority to change the hierarchy of the force.