Governor Bryan Nominates New V.I. Police Commissioner

U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS — Governor Albert Bryan Jr. has nominated Ray Martinez as the new V.I police commissioner to replace Commissioner Trevor Velinor, who will retire on Tuesday. As first reported by the Daily News, Martinez is currently the director of the Law Enforcement Planning Commission.

Martinez is a 12-year veteran of the V.I. Police Department. He served as director of Internal Affairs, Labor Relations manager, and as director of Intelligence. During that time, Martinez is credited with developing the Criminal Intelligence Unit. He has a bachelor of science degree in international and comparative criminal justice from Kaplan University and a master of science degree in criminal justice and criminology from the University of Cincinnati.

Commissioner Velinor is slated to retire on Tuesday after serving more than 30 years in law enforcement. He was "on loan" from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under an Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program agreement between the federal and local governments.

Governor Bryan said, “I want to take this opportunity to thank Commissioner Velinor for his service at the helm of the VIPD and for his leadership in our efforts to remove illegal firearms from our streets and apprehend violent criminal offenders."

He added, “I understood the importance of building a stronger relationship with our federal law enforcement partners and the need to introduce the ATF culture and resources as we continue to fight gun violence. Commissioner Velinor brought that to our Virgin Islands Police Department and while he says he’s retiring, law enforcement is in his blood, so I won’t be surprised if we see him in some other capacity in the near future.”

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