MIAMI — Andrew Smalling, a Jamaican, has been appointed Chief of the Broward Sheriff Office in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida.

Smalling, who took up his new post in January, is the first black to be promoted to the rank of Chief of the Broward Sheriff Office.

A 10-year veteran of the Broward Sheriff Department in Fort Lauderdale, Smalling now has the responsibility for the district of Lauderdale Lakes, one of the 15 divisions in Broward County. There are 61 officers under his command.

Born in Kingston, Smalling left Jamaica with his family at age eight to reside in the United States.

Before joining the Broward Sheriff Office in 1991, he served as a military intelligence officer in the US Marine Corp. A graduate of the Florida Institute of Technology, where he received an undergraduate degree in technical communications, Smalling also has a Master’s degree in criminal justice administration from Lynn University in Boca Raton.

During his ten years with the police force, Smalling worked in a number of departments including the Street Crimes Unit, Office of Professional Compliance, Staff Inspections and the Strategic Investigations and held the ranks of district sergeant, detective sergeant, field officer leader, K-9 unit commander, operations lieutenant and executive officer of District 4, Lauderdale Lakes, where he has now been assigned chief.

In an interview with Jamaica Information Service recently, Smalling said he joined the force after a short stint in “corporate America” after which he decided that he wanted to be in an area of service where he “could make a difference”.

“The police force is the first form of social service that is visible to the public and an area in which one can make a difference,” he said.

Over the years, he has worked in juvenile rehabilitation programmes and in the area of domestic violence in the communities in which he has served.

Smalling said in his new position, he will be placing a lot of emphasis on juvenile crimes in Lauderdale Lakes, said to be responsible for 23 per cent of “problems” in the area.

He said that the problems were mainly property crimes and destruction of city infrastructure.

The police chief said that he has been working with the City Commission to rid the city of abandoned buildings in order to avoid a slum environment, which could serve as a breeding ground for juvenile crimes.

Along with the City Commission office, Smalling is actively involved with a number of juvenile rehabilitation programmes — the Homework Network Centre, where students can get assistance from officers on school projects; the Deputies/Teachers Assistance programme and the After-School programme.

Noting that a united approach was needed to solve the problem of juvenile crimes, Smalling has urged the community at large — parents, teachers, churches and the neighbours — to become part of the process.

A suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Lauderdale Lakes is home to a large Jamaican community.

Smalling credits the development of the community to the work of the City Commission of which Mayor Samuel Brown and one of the city commissioners, Hazel Rogers, are both Jamaican nationals. Mayor Brown is serving his second consecutive term while the Commissioner Rogers is serving her third term.