SSP Lewis retires
HIS memorable quotes and no-nonsense approach made him both loved and hated. But Senior Superintendent of Police Radcliffe Lewis saw it as his call of duty.
The 40-year veteran and head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Traffic Division starts his retirement today.
Last year, SSP Lewis assisted the Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing in bringing the road fatalities below the 300 mark.
“It is a team effort by the traffic police, regular police, Island Special Constabulary Force members, Island Traffic Authority and the Transport Authority,” he said. “I couldn’t take any special praise for this achievement.”
A total of 256 persons lost their lives on the island’s roadways in 2012. The last time fewer than 300 persons perished in crashes was in 1999.
Last year also saw SSP Lewis taking aim at corporate entities whose vehicles bore private licence plates instead of commercial ones.
He was also at the centre of police joint operations in the Corporate Area as well as in the tourist belt of the island. He also locked horns with taxi drivers plying the Papine to Half-Way-Tree, Mountain View to Half-Way-Tree, and downtown Kingston to Papine routes in St Andrew. Several taxi drivers operating on those routes withdrew their service in protest against a clampdown on illegal operators.
In a bid to clear the streets, windscreen cleaners also came up on SSP Lewis’s radar.
Several were removed from the streets of the Corporate Area and charged with obstructing the normal flow of traffic.
American Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served from 1991 to 2001, employed a similar strategy as part of his quality-of-life campaign. The New York City mayor said the presence of windscreen cleaners on the streets created an environment of disorder that encouraged more serious crime to flourish. The windscreen cleaners are yet to return to New York City in significant numbers.
Only weeks ago, the traffic division head went after “party buses”.
“These rogue operators are using their vehicles to keep these wild parties and targeting vulnerable students to engage in a number of illegal activities,” he said.
Tints were removed from several public-passenger minibuses.
SSP was tight-lipped on his retirement plans.
“The only thing me scared of are lizards,” he quipped, when asked if he was afraid of retirement.
SSP Andrew Lewis, divisional commander for St James, is tipped to be the veteran’s replacement.
