Recently promoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) George Quallo has stated that his approach in his new position will be one that will effect change in the force and the island.

Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams announced last week that the operations portfolio had been divided into two — strategic, and territorial — with Quallo being responsible for the latter.

With this reassignment, Quallo is now in control of all police areas.

“I am in charge of areas one through to five. That’s my focus … territorial command, so I’ll be dealing with just about anything as it relates to the function of the area and the divisional command,” he explained.

“It is going to impinge on some administration, but primarily [it will be] operation; but for us to drive the operation, we must set the tone in terms of what is going to be in the diary and that is some aspect of administration,” he added.

Area One comprises Trelawny, St James, Westmoreland and Hanover; Area Two encompasses St Mary, St Ann and Portland; Clarendon, Manchester and St Elizabeth make up Area Three; Area Four contains Kingston Eastern, Kingston Central, Kingston Western, St Andrew Southern and St Andrew Central; and Area Five includes the divisions of St Andrew North, St Catherine South, St Catherine North and St Thomas.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer last week, Quallo said that the most crucial element of his strategy as DCP is to be on the ground and connect with the people at the grass roots.

“I am hitting the ground, I am talking to some junior people and I’m getting some buy in. Even if I get 50 per cent of the commitment, I think I can make a difference,” Quallo told the Sunday Observer when asked of his strategy.

“I’m taking it to a different level, never before seen, because we all acknowledge that as managers you are at a strategic level, so you are to develop policies and strategies and leave it. But the truth be told, sometimes when you develop the policies and the strategies, by the time it reaches where you want it to reach, it is not where you want it to be,” he also noted.

The new DCP has been in the force for 39 years and has served in all ranks within the entity, “including acting corporal which no longer exists.”

Quallo, who was proud of his recently attained rank, said it surpassed what his younger self had hoped to achieve. When asked how far he projected he would reach in the ranks of the JCF when he just entered, he stated “sergeant,” with a grin.

“Even before I joined, coming from a rural district at the time… the most senior rank you see and interact with then was a sergeant. So even from school days you say, ‘Bwoy, I would love to be a sergeant,’” he continued.

“It’s a significant achievement,” he said of his current rank. “I remember when I was in training school and one of my classroom sub-officers took off one of his sergeant chevrons and said, ‘Come young Quallo, you going wear this thing.’”

Quallo, originally from King Weston in St Andrew, spoke highly of his accomplishment in the JCF and described his feeling when he learned of his new role.

“It was one of the best feelings that anybody could ever imagine. I can’t find the words just now to describe it, being a likkle country bwoy from the rural part of St Andrew,” he said.

But the new appointment, he anticipates, will have challenges. One of them is the lack of resources throughout the organisation.

“We still have some amount of deficiency in units, so the first thing we would have to do is maximise those that we have because we never have all the resources that we need,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“There are some deficiencies in uniforms, because we are preaching professionalism to people, but you can’t be professional when you don’t have the proper outfit,” he continued.

He added that the issue with uniforms will be soon addressed because the force recently got uniforms and had ordered additional.

Just over two years away from retirement, Quallo hopes to serve as DCP until that time and hinted that he would still be willing to serve in law enforcement afterwards.

“I love what I do and I am prepared to serve,” he stated.

Quallo, who described himself as commited, is intent on effecting change in law enforcement in Jamaica by interacting and connecting with the people at the base levels.