Mark Titus and Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner WritersDuring his period of training at the Police Academy in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine, Corporal Eric Williams would be constantly reminded by lecturers of the dangers of the task he and colleagues had enlisted to undertake. The risky nature of the job was underscored by the numerous insurance sales representatives that visited the facility.
After graduation, he, along with two of his 'squaddies', was assigned to a hotbed division in the Kingston Metropolitan Area.
"We were very close, having spent a number of months in training together, and, not being familiar with the more senior officers at our new division, we had to support each other. And so, our friendship grew even tighter," relates Williams, a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force for 22 years.
Williams became even closer to the youngest of the lot, who was an only child for his parents.
"Clarke would call his mother every evening to let her know he is all right, because she had reluctantly supported him joining the force," Williams relates.
Nightly outbreaks of violence
Nightly, while Williams and the others stayed on barracks, Clarke stayed at his aunt's home in Portmore. "In those days, because we were at the station, we would end up on the road even when we were not working because of the nightly outbreaks of violence in the communities; but Clarke would leave on conclusion of his daily duties," Williams recounts.
He continues: "Then, I remember, one evening, he stayed back longer than the norm to have a chat with me and he told me of his plans to marry his girlfriend and bring her up from the country. He told me that he had called her about it and she agreed. And he was smiling from ear, to ear as he spoke of his ambitions. I advised him as best as I could and then he left for home.
"About one hour afterwards, we heard that a police had been shot in an attempted robbery on a bus going across the waters (Portmore causeway). I could not believe when I heard the name. It was Clarke," says Williams as he bowed his head.
"Within minutes, police from other parts of Area Four converged on the station and while the immediate co-workers at the station showed remorse and sadness, no one would have felt it like the two of us (squaddies) - especially me.
"Apart from having devotion the next morning, a pep talk from a pastor in the area, and a visit by the commissioner, there was no other remedial action," Williams recalls. He says the chaplaincy unit was not as structured as it is today.
"Personally, it leads to me being bitter and angry at how our society deals with police personnel," Williams states.
He relates that the first time he was part of a fatal shooting, it was as if nothing had happened: "I got congratulations from some quarters because 'mi bruk mi ducks', an I tried to feel good about my new-found fame, there was a kind of sick feeling inside and I really wanted someone to talk to."
Sessions
"You had to go by JPA (Jamaica Police Academy) for sessions and you would not be getting more than one, because all was on the shoulders of the force chaplain," explains Williams. "This also depended on the availability of a unit to transport you there, and it is dead business if it clashed with your duties, because it was something you had to take on yourself and pursue."
However, Williams, who has been involved in a number of shootings since, says the counselling service is now different.
"Although it is not a hundred per cent, there is a more structured arrangement," he points out. "You have to account for your actions to the Bureau (of Special Investigations); there are counselling sessions with the area chaplain, and you also have peer counsellors who interact with you, and are at times, even more effective than the chaplain himself, because they are there with you every day."
gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com/mark.titus@gleanerjm.com
Chaplaincy unit doing police a world of good
Panton
Corporal Joseph Munroe is a peer counsellor in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), who makes himself available to colleagues. He has been working for about four years, seeing hundreds of officers who have had problems ranging from personal relationships to involvement in fatal shootings.
Munroe recounts for The Sunday Gleaner the case of a colleague who was involved in a fatal shooting.
"As he related the story, I asked what was the most traumatic part of the experience for him. He said when the shooting subsided, and he saw the young man still clutching the firearm. Looking at him he realised he was about the age of his son. The police officer cried.
"He was saying only if he had not fired, the youth would be alive today. But this was a young man that was trying to kill him and he was firing at the party and he had no choice but to return fire. And that was really difficult for him," the counsellor states.
Reform
Munroe's peer counselling is part of the reform of the chaplaincy service in the JCF. "What used to happen before is that when a policeman is traumatised, he would have gone to drink and, of course, would womanise; that is how he would basically relieve the stress," Munroe states.
Though only around for a few years, the demand on the chaplaincy unit has grown exponentially, as is the same for the police medical services division. Munroe alone counsels up to four of his colleagues a day. His type of service has now become mandatory for officers who have experienced the killing of a colleague and for those who have been involved in fatal shootings.
"The force is very open and the chaplaincy has done very much to humanise the force," says JCF chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Vivian Panton.
"It's either his or her commander is going to send him or her in (for counselling) or that person is going to show up. There are rare cases where an individual slips through the cracks and is neither refered nor shows up," Panton explains.
Policy
"The demand that is made on us indicates that what is required and what is laid down as policy is followed," he says.
The mechanisms used by the chaplaincy unit take affected police through a number of stages of counselling before they are able to cope on their own or have disciplinary action taken against them. And for the most part, it seems the mechanisms have been effective, Panton reports.
"To the extent to which police personnel and their families utilise the counselling service, he (the former commissioner) is saying it is a quantum leap that the force has made over the last few years," states the chaplain.
