Winston Gordon Felix brings to his appointment as Commissioner of Police almost 34 years of experience gained from serving all across the country and in the top management posts of the Guyana Police Force.
He was sworn in on Monday at the Office of the President in front of a number of senior police officers and parliamentarians.
Felix joined the Police Force in 1971, having been influenced by his mother and is the only member of his family to have chosen the force as a career. He received his first promotion in 1976. But after then his promotions came fairly rapidly. He was promoted to Sergeant in 1978, made a Cadet Officer in 1980, promoted to Assistant Superintendent in 1982, Superintendent in 1984 and Senior Superintendent three years later. By 1990 he was an Assistant Commissioner and nine years later, Deputy Commissioner (ag).
During the first six years in the force, Felix was stationed on the East Coast Demerara and in 1977 was transferred to the Police Training School as an Instructor where he spent three years before being transferred to the Tactical Services Unit in 1981. In 1982 he was transferred to the Timehri International Airport for a year before returning to the Police Training School for another year.
In 1984 he was posted at Lethem and a year later rejoined the Tactical Services Unit. In 1987 he was given command of D Division (West Demerara) and another year later re-assigned to B Division (Berbice) as second-in-command and that same year he was given command of the division. In 1991 he was appointed Head of the Presidential Guard and following the 1992 elections he was transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department which he headed until his transfer in 1995 to head the Administration Department of the force. In 1998 he was put in charge of Operations, a position he held until his appointment as commissioner.
The new commissioner also has a wealth of training under his belt. In 1978 he attended both the Supervision and Command Courses at the Police Training School and a year later the Prosecutor's Course at the same institution. In 1989 he attended the Senior Officers' Course at the Felix Austin Police College and two years later the Advanced Manage-ment Course at the Guymine Management Training Centre; and in 1995 the Senior Officers' Course at the Ogle Management Training Centre.
He was also exposed to training overseas at the Canadian Police Staff College where he took the Senior Police Administration Course, and the Police Staff College, Bramshill in the United Kingdom where he did its Command Course. In 1993 he took the Drug Commanders course in St Maarten and a year later attended the FBI National Academy, Quantico, Virginia in the United States.
The Commissioner is also a Fellow of the Centre for Hemispheric Defence Studies of the National Defence University, Washington DC and in 2001 completed Scotland Yard's Strategic Development Course as the head of the team from Guyana. It was as a result of his performance on this course that he was identified to head the force.
He has participated in a Drug Commanders' Seminar in Miami Florida in 1993 and Peace Keeping Seminars in Guatemala (1977) and Jamaica and Guatemala (1998), a CICAD Model Regulation Seminar in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago (2001), an International Firearms Trafficking Seminar in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2001) and the FBI Academy Retraining Seminar in Costa Rico (2003).
He is a graduate of the University of Guyana with a Diploma in Public Administration (1993) and a B Sc in Public Management (1997).
The Commissioner grew up in Georgetown, though both his parents came from Berbice - his father from Hopetown, West Coast Berbice and his mother from the Corentyne. He attended the St Stephen's Church of Scotland School and the Charlestown Government Secondary School. He is married and is the father of two children.