RETIRED senior superintendent of police, Reneto Adams’ dream of becoming Jamaica’s next commissioner of police will not become a reality, the Sunday Observer can report.

Adams, 61, arguably Jamaica’s most recognisable and flamboyant crime fighter in the 154-year history of the police force, does not fit certain criteria required for becoming police commissioner, including the criterion of having a first degree, which has been thrown into the selection mix by the Police Service Commission (PSC), this newspaper has learnt.

Sources close to the PSC, which will announce the new commissioner soon, say that the particular academic qualification and the fact that the Government would not approve of Adams serving as top cop, would automatically disqualify the colourful ex-policeman, who served the force for 41 years before retiring.

“Even if he applies, he will not be invited to attend an interview,” the source told the Sunday Observer.

“There is a feeling too, that his style of policing is not what the country wants at this time,” the source said.

But Adams immediately shot back that he would regard the degree requirement as a ploy to exclude him because he did not have a degree.

“As far as I know, Regulation 61 of the Constabulary Force Act does not stipulate the need for a degree,” he said. “If they do that, I know that it would be a move to hinder those of us who have the ability, but who are without degrees.

“A degree does not mean that one person is brighter than another, but if they ask for it, then that would preclude me from becoming commissioner. I know that it would be specifically designed to preclude me,” he insisted.

The Sunday Observer tried unsuccessfully to contact commission chairman, Professor Gordon Shirley for comment.

The Government had stated three weeks ago that the post would be advertised. But it is still not certain whether or not the commission will go that route, or choose from the available talent within the force and make a decision which, it is highly anticipated, would result in the confirmation of acting police commissioner Owen Ellington, as police chief.

Adams, in an interview, warned that if the PSC went ahead and asked for a first degree as one of the qualifications, then there could be trouble.

“Unless the Act has changed, no policeman requires a degree for any position in the force,” said Adams. “If someone does not get a position because he does not have a degree, I would view that as victimisation and discrimination.”

The man who has received overwhelming support from citizens who expressed their choice for top cop on websites, newspapers and the airwaves, said that he had no plans to quit the race and would submit his application as soon as the situation allowed him to.

He maintained that police work required more than having a university qualification.

“If a man has a degree in Mathematics for example, obviously he would multiply faster that I could. But if you have a riot in East Kingston, I am sure that I would be capable of handling the situation better than the man with the Maths degree,” said Adams.

“I could have had a degree before, but at university they don’t teach the kind of things that I would want to know. I want someone to teach me how to own my own business, not to teach me how to work for someone and running the business of others,” he added.

Adams now runs his own security firm and names Caribbean Estates, New Era Homes and the Matalon group of companies among his major clients.

“I spent 41 years in the force and never had the chance to attend university because of a number of reasons,” he explained. “I remember starting a correspondence course from Bennett College in England and was threatened by my sub-officer when I was trying to study that he could charge me for idling on duty. I had to hide and study.

“The last commissioner had a Master’s degree in public administration and he turned public administration into a joke. (Former commissioner) Francis Forbes had a law degree and you would have thought that he would have known better, but he did no better,” said Adams.

“The degree that I have is QBE, meaning Qualified By Experience. I am not satisfied with the people who have first, second and third degrees, as they have led this country nowhere,” he argued. “The wealth, good health, the ability to support my family and myself was due to the education that I got and it had nothing to do with corruption.

“All my children have gone through university level education and I owe no debt. I have achieved everything I want to achieve by the time I reached 50,” St Elizabeth-born Adams said.

He criticised the constabulary’s accelerated promotion programme, whereby persons with tertiary level education could join the police force at a senior level, saying that such persons had not acquired the requisite police knowledge to be effective.

Defending his own time as a police officer, Adams hit back at those who said that crime had increased while he served in senior crime-fighting positions.

“Those persons are being unfair to me, because I never had all-island authority. I had the responsibility for Kingston & St Andrew and St Catherine,” he said.