ÐÓ°ÉÐÔ°É

The crime that has been plaguing Clarendon has caused different reactions, with people pointing fingers at who or what is to be blamed, or offering solutions in the form of a zone of special operations or a gun amnesty.

But retired senior superintendent Radcliffe Lewis believes that the crime situation can be brought under better control if the current head of the parish's police, Senior Superintendent Vendolyn Cameron-Powell is reassigned.

"What I'm going to say is that she has been there for almost four years, and I'm of the opinion that the intense pressure that the criminals are applying to the division have her under some pressure. And my honest opinion is, if I was the deputy commissioner in charge of operations, I would relieve her of the post and place her somewhere else where she can recoup. A man is more able to take the pressure," he said.

Lewis, who served as head of the Clarendon police, asserted that the additional duties that come with being a female does not allow Cameron-Powell enough time to focus on her job as the commanding officer.

Toughest division

"The little I know of her is that she is a family-orientated person and she's in charge of that division, which is considered by many as probably the toughest division in the Jamaica Constabulary Force in terms of criminality," he said. "Remember, she has her children to look after, enuh, and that is a woman's job, to take care of the young ones. A man now can go there, sleep and he knows that he has somebody there to take care of the children."

Lewis recalled how he had to make enormous sacrifices when he was in charge of that division.

"In my time as a commanding officer, sometimes fi all a month, two months, three months, I don't go home in Kingston. And to be honest to the female, she is doing a good job. But the fact that the thing is so stressful, I am of the opinion that it's good for her, and it's also good for policing in the division (to make a change)," he said.

He said a suitable replacement would be head of the St Catherine North Division, Senior Superintendent Beau Rigabie.

"He's doing I wouldn't say not even one excellent, but an excellent, excellent, excellent job," he said.