Former WPB deputy police chief reacts to police chief’s firing

West Palm Beach, FL/CBS12 News — We’re following the West Palm Beach mayor’s actions on Tuesday when he fired the police chief.

A former West Palm Beach deputy police chief says it’s hard to imagine what might have led the mayor to fire Police Chief Frank Adderley.

Adderley was hired as West Palm Beach police chief in June 2019 and when he was terminated this week, his annual salary was about $221,000.

Now he’s gone and a temporary police chief is taking over. We asked the former deputy police chief his thoughts on the dismissal.

“Do you think the mayor made the right decision to fire Chief Adderley?” We asked, “How could you do that, knowing what I know at this point?” It’s not the right decision. But there must be something I don’t know because it doesn’t make sense,” said former West Palm Beach Police Chief Deputy Rick Morris.

Morris reacts to the news that Police Chief Frank Adderley has been given a pink slip.

At a news conference on Tuesday, the mayor said there were suspected “financial irregularities” involving several top police officials.

“I am committed to ensuring that the West Palm Beach Police Department maintains the highest standards. In my opinion, those standards were simply not met,” said West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James.

Morris resigned from the WPB Police Department in December 2023.

“We had to clean up when we got there in 2019 and it continues like that. They have over 500 employees there. Like any profession, there will be some people who shouldn’t be there,” Morris said.

He says under Chief Adderley they’ve managed to reduce violent crimes like murders.

“When we first got here in 2019, we were ranked ninth in the country. Our murder rate was out of control. I think if you go into any of these communities now, they will say what we did,” Morris explained.

Col. Tony Araujo of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has been named interim West Palm Beach police chief and says he will review the West Palm Beach Police Department from the top down.

“I hope that the new system, when he looks from the ground up, finds people who don’t have to be there, but have to go. You know, law enforcement has no room for them anymore,” Morris said.

We attempted to get comment from rank-and-file WPB police officers, but they said nothing as they prepared to pull into the police station parking lot.

A spokesman for the West Palm Beach Police Department said they had not released any information about the chief’s firing Wednesday. He referred us to the mayor’s office, and a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment.