IT was hardly a surprise.

Ignoring police sentiments that their leader should come from within, the Police Service Commission (PSC) has given the nod to Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin as the next Commissioner of Police, impeccable Observer sources said last night.

The choice of the former head of the Jamaica Defence Force also appeared to reflect calls for a tougher approach to the crackdown on the spiralling murder rate.

It came as the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) was reeling from the shock killing of a high ranking cop and a constable within hours of each other.

The Observer sources said that the Governor-General Kenneth Hall had already been notified of Lewin’s appointment to succeed Lucius Thomas and that King’s House was expected to make an official announcement on Monday.

But Minister of National Security Derrick Smith declined to confirm or deny the appointment, saying only that it was up to the Governor-General to make the announcement.

“All I can say is that, I am aware that the (Police Service) Commission has sent its recommendation to the Governor-General, and that he is to make an announcement soon,” he told the Observer last night.

Smith and Prime Minister Bruce Golding met with the current heads of the security forces at Jamaica House yesterday, apparently to discuss the implications of the new leadership.

Lewin follows in the footstep of a former JDF man, Col Trevor MacMillan who, also against police objection, was appointed police commissioner under the P J Patterson administration. He will take over the reins from Deputy Police Commissioner Jevene Bent who has been acting since the departure of Thomas.

Rear Admiral Lewin stepped down from the JDF top job and handed over to Major General Saunders on October 27, after 36 years in the JDF – the last five and a half years as Chief of Staff. He has since been seen as the frontrunner to succeed former Commissioner Thomas.

The Commission had for the first time advertised the post for persons from outside the JCF ranks, including foreigners, to apply for the job – an action which enraged some officers of the JCF.

The search for a new Commissioner threw up names such as Director of Elections Danville Walker; Deputy Commissioner Charles Scarlett; and assistant commissioners Carl Williams, Novelette Grant and Owen Ellington and Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams.

But Smith had told a post-Cabinet briefing at Jamaica House on November 13 that the government would have no say in the selection of the new commissioner.

“I, and I am sure the prime minister, will make no effort to give them any directives or signal to them any preferences. We will leave that entirely to the commission to make their decision,” Smith said then.

Lewin takes the job as the murder is again soaring: More than 1,400 persons have already been murdered in Jamaica with 31 days to go before 2007 comes to an end.

Included in list of casualties are 18 policemen, including possibly the highest ranking policeman to be killed – Assistant Commissioner Gilbert Kameka who was gunned down Thursday in unclear circumstances in the rural St Andrew community of Irish Town.

More than 150 person were murdered for the Month of November up to Thursday, a day when another cop, Constable Valentino Chambers was also killed by gunmen.

Fifty-three-year-old Rear Admiral Lewin, a native of Ocho Rios, St Ann, is a graduate of Ferncourt High School and the University of the West Indies where he graduated with an MBA. He was commanding officer of the JDF Coast Guard from 1988 to 2001.

– Additional reporting by Erica Virtue