DESPITE the nature of the job of a police officer, women have not shied away from the profession. In fact, of the many years of service, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) for the first time has appointed six women as divisional commanders.

They are: Senior Superintendent Millicent Sproul-Thomas, commander of the St Andrew Central division; Superintendent Oberlyn Smith, commander of Portland; Superintendent Jacqueline Green, commander of the St Andrew North division; Superintendent Vendolyn Cameron-Powell, commander for Manchester; Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay responsible for St Mary; and Superintendent Charmaine Shand, commander of the St Thomas division.

The women are responsible for operational duties within their division and have a level of freedom as to how they manage their divisions and the stations within them.

Though different from what they are accustomed to, the women are determined to perform well and ensure that they serve and protect their communities.

“The command is new as a position but in terms of the skills of management, that is not really new because you know as you go along you exercise management skills,” Superintendent Cameron-Powell told the Jamaica Observer.

The women were confident that their time in the post will not be in vain as they are determined to perform well.

The women said that their years of service in different aspects of the force have adequately equipped them to serve their community in this capacity.

“I [am] bringing to Portland division 38 years of policing experience both locally and internationally… I’ve been in administration, operation, training, community safety, [and] almost every aspect of policing I have been a part of, so for me now it’s just to do and make it work,” Smith said.

She added that she has been an inspectorate of constabulary — the standard bearer of the force, and was at the Office of Professional Responsibilty in her many years of service.

Although they have various experiences, the women said that their recent appointments had forced them to grow and develop.

“I was forced to grow. Many things that happen at the divisional level are different from what you do in a non-geographic formation, so you have to draw on all the training and all the experiences you have had all the time throughout my career at the JCF and I’m seeing where I am benefiting,” Lindsay stated.

“If you are in the organisation and you’re basically working in a non-geographic space, for example, you’re looking at administration, you’re looking at CSS (Community, Safety and Security) and you’re placed in a geographic division, it’s the entire picture. You have operations, administration, intelligence, the whole lockup situation, everything is there … it’s the total picture so you must learn more things and you must grow; you are forced to understand the entire picture,” Cameron-Powell interjected.

She said though that while the ladies might have overlooked some things while they were in their “little comfort zone” they are now thrown out into the division and have no choice but to perform exemplarily.

Senior Superintendent Sproul-Thomas, who served as a commander for the Kingston Central division, said she too was forced to grow when appointed.

“I was transferred to the Kingston Central division in 2007, and 2007 was an election year so I actually went there in June and election was about September/October so I had to catch up very fast, I had to make sure I understood the whole demographic of the division, the political boundaries… because you know that most of Kingston Central is mainly inner-city communities. So I was forced to grow; there was no rest,” Sproul-Thomas outlined.

The women in telling what was expected of them in this position said that because there were no prejudices in the JCF, they will have to act as any commander would. They assured that “everybody is treated the same” and they are therefore expected to act accordingly in whatever rank, whether they be male or female.

“I think in the force even though we are female officers we don’t think gender. We really don’t want to be treated differently, we don’t want to be treated inferior, so we don’t think gender we just go out there and do it. We compete a lot with the men,” Lindsay said.

Smith, who served as Chief of police in Darfur, said, “What I find here in Jamaica is that we have more gender equality.”

“When I was going to command that division I was told that I was not going to make a difference because of two things: [one], I am a female, my male counterpart who I was going to lead they don’t take kindly to a female being in charge and [two] I was also told that the citizens [of] the community don’t take kindly to a woman being in charge and I was in for a culture shock when I went because it was true,” Smith said.

She said that because of her gender, the men in Darfur would not shake her hand. She said they did not respect her and it wasn’t until she took action and did something unprecedented to curtail a situation that they began to respect her as a commanding officer.

The six women believe that despite their gender they are capable of taking something different to the position than the men.

“Many times you find a female in command who does very well, not that the males don’t do well but because I think we recognise that we are among the minority and it’s a male-dominated organisation [and] it is easier to find maybe three times more a male officer to command a division. So as a female officer given the opportunity to command a division… I believe [it] is a very big achievement for anybody in the Jamaica Constabulary Force,” her colleague Lindsay said as she explained that she is determined to perform well in her post.

With support from her colleagues, she said that because of the nurturing nature of females they “pay attention to the individual needs… whereas the male might deal with them a bit differently. And I believe that’s just a natural process, male versus female.”

“And from a woman’s perspective too, in terms of feedback, you will find that women spend more time giving the feedback to especially the external customers. The continuous updates as it relates to investigations, whilst we have the men on the ground who really do the investigations but when it’s reported to you or when you’re updated the feedback to the wider community is done,” Superintendent Green chimed in.

When asked how the appointment has affected their personal lives, the women said that their families have had to adjust to the changes.

“I have three kids, my youngest being five, and the last eight months I’ve made significant transformation in my personal setting because my kids are always accustomed to having me home [and] this is the first time I’m working outside of the Corporate Area,” said Lindsay, who now stays in St Mary for the purpose of her job.

“And I must say that had I not gone to St Mary in January my daughter who turns 18 wouldn’t know how to take a bus,” she continued.

Cameron-Powell, also a mother of three, said that every police officer has had to learn to strike a balance between family and the job.

“All of us we have learnt over time, not at this rank or at this position [but] from the beginning because of the type of work you have to learn to juggle and to fit in family with work and everything must work. You cannot afford to put the family aside and to take the work in its totality, you have to balance and that’s a thing we have learnt to do as persons with family and children,” she stated.

The officer noted that this causes their lives to become technical, rough and expensive at times as they are often forced to just buy food instead of preparing a meal at home because of the nature of the job.

For Sproul-Thomas and Smith, who identified with their colleagues, the fact that their children are now adults have eased this pressure.

Despite their personal lives, the women have not been deterred from caring for others within their extended family and externally.

“In my work space I have adopted some of my co-workers and persons from the community, so I am a mother, father and everything both within the family and within the work environment,” highlighted Green, who cared for her niece who has recently emigrated.

“You find that you spend more time with your police family than you do with your personal family, which is one of the issues that we grapple with in law enforcement. I don’t think it’s even unique to female officers but it’s one of the things that you see very prevalent in law enforcement. [So] like Ms Cameron said it’s a balancing act; you have to balance it because as a divisional commander when you take on this big police family you have to find everything within you to keep that team motivated because they have many challenges and sometimes you sit and you listen to them it is as if you have to listen to your own family and you can’t ignore them so you have to be there, so everything that you do in your personal life is a constant balancing,” Lindsay explained.

The women, who are all firm believers in community policing, outlined that community policing was an avenue that they know can help stem the level of violence in the community. They said that community engagement was paramount to building relationships between the police and the community.

“Policing is not just done from the station, it is done from the grassroots and how you get to build this grassroots is that you and your officers will have to engage the community,” Lindsay told the Sunday Observer.

“What I found out is that when you build a partnership with the community, for example, something is going to happen… somebody will give you a call saying ‘you better come now or send some police because this is happening’. So there is always somebody to alert,” SSP Sproul-Thomas added.

They said that with a strong relationship with the citizens, the community “will not be too willing to chastise you and to block road and to rise up against you to rebel but they will try to engage you through dialogue.”

The JCF has 19 geographical divisions and approximately 190 stations across the island. Each station manager reports directly to the divisional commander, who in turn reports to the Commissioner of Police, Dr Carl Williams.

According to Assistant Commissioner of Police Assan Thompson, who often becomes a motivator to the women, currently approximately a third of the country’s police divisions are being managed by female officers.