By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Strong
JUST A few years before retirement from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), but full of experience and very capable, Assistant Commissioner Errol Strong is pulled from the diplomatic service in Washington to head up the Narcotics Division here.
"I am coming home to complete my service in the JCF," ACP Strong told The Sunday Gleaner.
Describing his five and a half-year stint in Washington, ACP Strong said the experience gave him the opportunity to learn more about international collaboration and co-operation, as it relates to policing.
But the twilight days of the ACP's exceptional service will find him in one of the organisation's most taxing and dynamic environments the leadership of the Police Narcotics Divsion.
According to ACP Strong, he got a letter from the Government recently informing him that his tour of duty in the United States was coming to end. He said nothing, in relation to his new assignment, has been communicated to him by the Commissioner.
"I don't know where the Commissioner will be reassigning me. I cannot comment or respond to what I have been hearing and seeing in the media," he said.
The facts are that ACP Strong is no stranger to anti-narcotics operation. During his tenure in Washington, his responsibilities included representing the Jamaican Government at various international narcotics conferences, staged by the Organisation of American States (OAS).
VETERAN
Apart from that, ACP Strong is one of the most senior officers in the JCF. At one stage, he was the Acting Deputy Commissioner with the portfolio for crime.
The 38-year veteran relieves Senior Superintendent Carl Williams of command at Narcotics. Williams, who has been granted study leave, is scheduled to depart the island in August to attend school overseas in September.
Deputy Commissioner Lucius Thomas said yesterday that Williams is one of the best narcotics chiefs that Jamaica has ever seen.
Superintendent Gladstone Wright, who is second in command at Narcotics, has also been transferred, along with Deputy Superintendent A. Powell. Reports are that Supt. Wright has been given a task to command a police division in Area One.
With the departure of these officers from the Narcotics Division, Superintendent Lloyd Haley could be the deputy to ACP Strong.
