THE sudden resignation of Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas has raised the possibility of a woman becoming the top cop for the first time in the history of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). But while some commentators believe the country is ready for a woman to sit in the chief constable’s chair, the wall of silence from within the male-dominated institution suggests there may be some apprehension at the prospect.

At least three senior police officers on Friday refused to comment on the issue. Among them was Superintendent Newton Amos, who has a reputation of being outspoken on a range of issues to do with the constabulary. More recently, he was on national television noting his opposition to the appointment to the job of someone from outside the JCF.

Superintendent Derrick ‘Cowboy’ Knight, too, refused comment on the issue on grounds that the matter was potentially a political one. Corporal Raymond Wilson, head of the Police Federation, for his part, said he was unprepared to speak on the matter until tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Thomas is to leave office at the end of this month, and until his replacement is found, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Jevene Bent – the most senior ranked female in the JCF – is to act as commissioner.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Novelette Grant has, in the interim, been named among the contenders for the top post. The others are Deputy Commissioner Charles Scarlett and ACPs Carl Williams and Owen Ellington.

However, whether the constabulary and the society are ready for a female to permanently occupy the office is an issue that has many thinking and several tongues wagging.

Former police commissioner Trevor MacMillan believes that the constabulary is ready, while noting that he himself would have no problems with a female appointment to the office.

“I think it is. Women have been in the force for many, many years now and they have played a role in many, many prominent areas. So I personally would not have a problem,” MacMillan told the Sunday Observer.

“Over the years, from the first woman came into the police force, women have performed in a very professional way and the majority have the respect of the majority of the force,” he added. “And certainly, the senior women officers, particularly the two really senior ones – Miss Bent and Miss Grant – have the respect of the force. I am quite sure that they would be accepted.”

Bent has served the constabulary for more than three decades and currently has responsibility for its administrative and support services. And while not named among those vying for the job, she has acted before as the chief constable. The occasion was in 2004 when then commissioner of police Francis Forbes went on an overseas mission.

Grant, for her part, was regarded as being among those likely to have succeeded Forbes when he left office in 2005. But Thomas got the job. Despite this, Grant has been sent by JCF on an executive management course for senior law enforcement officers in the United Kingdom. It was the same course undertaken by Forbes before he assumed office as commissioner of police in 1996. Grant has now served 25 years in the force, having begun her training in 1981 at the police academy when it was located at Port Royal, Kingston.

Despite MacMillan’s view that the constabulary is ready for a woman boss, gender specialist and president of Woman Inc, Joyce Hewett, believes otherwise.

“It is debatable, and for two reasons. One is certainly the gender issue and the fact that so many of the men on the force have been socialised to see or to respond to a man as the head. And this goes, I think, beyond the boundaries of the JCF,” she said. “We are still in a society where a lot of men are of the mind that men shouldn’t take orders from a woman, and this is a quote I actually heard from a man in the force.”

The second reason, Hewett said, has to do with the island’s problem of escalating crime and violence and the tendency to view women as nurturers.

“I think even though they (women) have come through the ranks as police, men tend to view the women as being more nurturing as females. And the crime and violence that we have may require some sufficiently tough, harsh decisions with regards to how we go after the guns,” said the Woman Inc head. “I would think that it is the perception of the men on the force that women may not take as hard a stance as a man would take. Whether that is a reality is yet to be seen.”

MacMillan, however, harbours no such concern, noting that he could see a female commissioner taking tough decisions where and when they were required.

“I have no doubt that the women in the constabulary force have been trained and are professional. So if it comes to making a difficult decision, given their training and professionalism, I don’t see any difficulty,” said the former army officer, who served as commissioner of police between 1993 and 1996.

Hewett noted, however, that the Jamaican society may be more amenable to a female in charge of the police force, particularly given its recent exposure to the country’s first female prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller.

“Given that we have had a female prime minister, certainly as a society I think we would be a little more groomed to having a female head of the force,” she told the Sunday Observer. “But it might be that the majority of the persons in the force require a bit more preparation.”

Faith Webster, executive director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, for her part, said it would be unacceptable for the JCF at this stage in its history to not be ready for a female boss, to say nothing of the Jamaican society.

“I should hope we should be ready after so many years and looking at the situation where our women are doing very well in terms of advancing themselves professionally and academically,” she said. “We have quite competent women in the force, and I don’t see why in the light of that they should not be able to step into that position and perform just as well, if not better than, a man.

“And I should hope that by this time, the society would be ready and their minds attuned to accepting a woman in such a role. We recently had our first female PM. Why not our first female police commissioner?”

Webster added that if the JCF and Jamaica were not yet ready for a female top cop, then it was way past time that they get in gear.

“When you look right across the world, women are definitely coming into their own, and are breaking the glass ceiling. I hope that in the interest of promoting gender equality and all of that, we would see a little more movement in our Jamaican society,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“I am hoping that the Jamaican public can look at it in that way and see a woman in that position without any sort of bias or discrimination against them. We need to perform at equal levels with men as partners in the development process. We have to break with tradition now. At one stage there were no women in the police force.”