Top Cop Donohue Crossman. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

THE 2009 Lasco Top Cop, Donohue Crossman, makes no bones about it: he has his eyes firmly set on the lofty position of commissioner of police.

"Commissioner of police, definitely ... It is a seat that seems to want me," he chuckled as he spoke with The Gleaner about his ambitions in the force.

Crossman stood in stark contrast to a fortnight ago, when he was bedecked in a suit to receive the coveted award.

Yesterday, the youthful crime-fighter was clad in a blue-denim uniform when The Gleaner team chatted with him as he and his colleagues kept a watchful eye on a crime scene.

He stood in the volatile Shooters Hill community in Bull Bay, St Andrew, metres from a gruesome spectacle featuring a burnt motor car which hosted the remains of an elderly farmer.

That is the challenging nature of the job that Crossman, who is assigned to Area Four, contends with on a daily basis.

Despite the challenges, the slender-framed young cop with an infectious personality harbours no regrets - the last two weeks have seen to that.

Crossman was propelled into the limelight when he emerged as the Lasco Top Cop for 2009, but much has happened to the 24-year-old policeman since October 28.

Promotion

Even as Crossman basked in the knowledge that he was only the second constable to be voted to the enviable position, news came within days that he would be promoted to the rank of corporal.

But the glamour associated with the coveted award coupled, with a promotion that has been six years in coming, has not changed the focus of the hard-working policeman.

The ever-smiling Crossman quipped that the promotion was inspired by the Top Cop award.

"I got promoted the Friday after the ceremony, October 30. I would think it (the award) prompted the promotion."

Crossman admitted that he was on cloud nine and declared that the gruesome challenges had failed to put a damper on the euphoria.

"It is still there ... even if I forget, people will bring it back."

Having led a disciplined existence, Crossman, a former employee of The Gleaner, asserts that the new responsibilities, which have accompanied the award, do not daunt him.

"It is not a great weight ... I am just like that (disciplined) ... However, I guess that there will be less place for mistakes as I will be in the public's eye. If I do make a mistake it will be publicised."

Initial support

Crossman says he has been fortunate to have the likes of "DSP Williams, DSP Christie and Inspector Williams in his corner, who believe in me and keep pushing me forward".

The top cop recalls that his entry into the police force was marked by a memorable stint at The Gleaner, as a 16-year-old intern in 2000, by way of a scholarship he earned while he was a student at Guys Hill High School.

He was still able to reel off the names of numerous members of the editorial staff past and present. "I would love to go back there," he gushed.

Helping to tame the monster

However, he recalled that with his abiding love for discipline-oriented organisations, he was drawn to the army, but instead, ended up as a recruit of the Jamaica Constabulary Force a year after his stint with The Gleaner.

Crossman accepts that crime is a major challenge, but suggests that a partnership with civic society would help to tame the monster.

"I am encouraging members of the public to assist the police in solving crime. We have the know-how, we know what we have to do, we just need to get the information that we need to drive us," he declared.

gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com