After 42 years, DCP Hinds retiring with no regrets
Had Glemore Hinds’ mother had her way he would have been a priest. After all, she had gone about making arrangements for him to begin studies at a seminary.
But the gangly Oberlin High School graduate’s gaze was fixed on another career, not because he didn’t want to be associated with the clergy, but on account of the fact that he was impressed by a cop who was well-groomed, and the way people looked up to him.
“I’m from a deep, remote district called Lewisburgh in St Mary. The nearest police station to me was in Troja, and I was actually around the police there [as] they had a scout group and I was a member,” Hinds told the Jamaica Observer last Friday. “So I actually became familiar with the policemen at the station, and I was struck by a particular policeman, he was neat and he had the respect of the entire community.”
Without informing his mother, Mavis, the young Hinds said he travelled to Richmond in the parish and successfully sat the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) entry test, which was conducted under an islandwide recruiting drive named ‘Operation Brainwave’.
His mother, he recalled, was very upset when she found out. “She was not amused at all, but after a while she came around to accepting my decision,” Hinds said.
It’s a decision he has not regretted, as it formed the foundation of a sterling career that has seen him climb through the ranks over the past 42 years and from which he will take the first steps into retirement this Wednesday, January 11.
Interestingly, Hinds, whose retirement will become effective on May 26, disclosed that he never had an interest in becoming police commissioner, despite the fact that his steady progress in the constabulary has taken him to his current rank of deputy commissioner.
“When you’re from deep, rural [Jamaica] you know two ranks – corporal and inspector. So when I joined, my ambition was to become an inspector, but of course I modified that with increased knowledge; but I saw myself ultimately as an assistant commissioner,” he admitted to the Sunday Observer.
None of that, though, mattered to Mavis Hinds who, having got over her initial disappointment, was just proud of her son’s progress.
“She was the proudest person on Earth. She did not miss an opportunity to tell anybody about her son,” Hinds recalled.
His father Leslie, who was a farmer, was supportive of his son’s decision. Leslie died in 2005, while Mavis, a florist and baker, passed in 2009 when Glenmore was an assistant commissioner of police.
“My mother must have baked the wedding cake and decorated the table for almost 90 per cent of the persons from my district who got married. She was probably the best baker in Jamaica,” Hinds reflected in an emotional moment during the interview.
The close relationship he shared with his mother was also demonstrated in the fact that it was she who took him to the bus stop in Troja, a day before his 18th birthday, to see him off to the Police Training School in Port Royal.
But, even with his mother’s blessing, an encounter with a retired cop at that bus stop gave Hinds added reason to do well in the constabulary.
“I was on my way to Kingston, my mother took me the bus stop in Troja, and I saw a retired corporal named Burgess. and my mother said to him, ‘This is my son, he’s going to join the police force.’ And the gentleman looked me up and down and said ‘He can’t make it’,” Hinds related.
“At the time, I was very skinny, and that served to motivate me. At training school I became tough, and I said to myself, ‘I must prove this man wrong,’” he said, adding that he actually became the class captain at training school.
After six months of training, Hinds was posted at Kingston Central Division. However, he said he left that post shortly after on learning that there was need for a statistician at the Traffic Headquarters which, at the time, was at 83 Hanover Street in downtown Kingston.
“So I went there, but then, like most restless young police, I didn’t want to be tied to an office for a long time. so I applied to go to Immigration, because at the time Immigration was under the police. But my supervisor at traffic tore up the application in my presence and said, ‘you’re not going.’
“I never gave up, and a few months after I applied to go to Special Branch, and he said, ‘You’re determined, so I won’t stop you this time,’” Hinds disclosed.
The experience at Special Branch – the intelligence arm of the JCF and the forerunner to what is now the National Intelligence Bureau – was good. But after a while Hinds wanted to leave, primarily, he said, because he sat and passed the corporal’s exam, but was not promoted as he was new to the branch.
A fortuitous approach by the head of the Traffic Headquarters saw Hinds deciding to return there.
“By then I was a detective, and the head of Special Branch asked me, ‘Are you sure you want to leave?’ I said ‘Yes’.
“He said, ‘If you leave we would have to revert you to uniform.’ I said ‘Yes, I’m willing to leave.’
“He said, ‘Okay, take two weeks and think about it, and then tell me if you are willing to leave.’
“At the end of two weeks I went to him and said ‘I thought about it and yes, I want to go,’” Hinds related.
After his return, Hinds said he was promoted to corporal in 1986 — the same year that he was elected to the central executive of the Police Federation, serving in that post until 1988.
In 1990, when the JCF advertised that it was looking for young, bright people with the potential to join the officer corps, Hinds was a sergeant.
He applied and was in among the cops to start under the Accelerated Promotion Programme. Others in that batch were Owen Ellington and Carl Williams, who both went on to become police commissioner; Novelette Grant, a deputy commissioner who is now acting as police chief after Williams opted for early retirement last week; and Paul Ferguson.
“The idea was really to look at future leaders in the organisation,” Hinds explained, adding that after two years most of them were promoted to either assistant superintendent or deputy superintendent.
Hinds credits the training and experience he received in the Accelerated Promotion Programme for his rapid rise through the ranks.
For instance, during the training he was station commander at Four Paths in Clarendon and Yallahs in St Thomas.
“It had its fair share of challenges, but it was quite rewarding. It tested your mettle,” he told the Sunday Observer.
“Most of us were largely inexperienced as station commanders, and so it depended on how well you were able to cope, to motivate and build a team around you.
“So the experience was good. In fact, I was able to get my staff to refuse to go home if there was a need for them to stay at work. I remember one Christmas Eve everybody decided that they would work the entire day because they wanted to be around to ensure everything was in order,” he said.
From Yallahs he was transferred to St Mary where he was made deputy commander for the division. “That lasted for three months because I was then transferred to Kingston Western as the second in command.”
The Kingston Western assignment, he admitted, was particularly challenging. The year was 1994 and gang violence was plaguing three communities – Tivoli Gardens; Wilton Gardens, more popularly known as Rema; and Denham Town.
“It was not uncommon to have daily and nightly shootings between the gangs,” Hinds recalled. “The police were actually acting as buffer between the Tivoli Gardens side and the Rema side.”
“There were several moments that I felt that I was in a situation that was entirely hopeless and there was no way that this can be resolved,” he admitted.
From Kingston Western, Hinds, who was by now an assistant superintendent, was deployed to the Kingston Eastern Division, not as a support officer, but as the divisional commander.
“It was less troublesome than Kingston Western. Violence was there, but one of the things that we were able to do was to establish police youth clubs in almost all the stations in Kingston Eastern. That allowed the police to have better relations with the communities,” he said.
“Every month we had a meeting with the community, we told them what we were doing, what they should expect from us, and what support we wanted from them. It helped to build the communities and helped to reduce crime in a significant way,” he added.
The successes achieved by Hinds and his team were apparently being noticed by the high command, as Francis Forbes, who was by then commissioner, summoned Hinds, then a deputy superintendent, and sent him back to Kingston Western as divisional commander, a rare assignment for someone at that rank.
According to Hinds, much had not changed in terms of the violence, and one Saturday morning when a colleague, Colin Pinnock, called him to say that people from both Rema and Denham Town were gathered at Race Course Lane, he was probably preparing for the worst.
Instead, what he witnessed when he got there warmed his heart.
“People started hugging each other. There were people, sisters, for instance, who had not seen each other for five years because of the conflict,” Hinds related.
“It was very special. It wasn’t organised, it was spontaneous.”
His next assignment was to head Protective Services, the division of the JCF that provides security for VIPs as well as visiting heads of state and government and other individuals who are considered to be at risk.
“It was a new challenge, because at that time there was the perception that Protective Services was populated largely by political police. My mandate was to go there and professionalise it,” he explained.
Hinds said that with the help of Hector Lewis he met his mandate and got the cops assigned there to sit and pass exams that saw them move up the ranks.
But that assignment lasted only a year, as he was sent back to Special Branch, where he served as head, after which he came to national attention with the launch of Operation Kingfish, the formation that took down some of the island’s major crime bosses.
Hinds admitted that his many transfers over the years did have an effect on his family life, primarily because most of the times he was away from home. However, he said he was lucky to have an understanding family that supported him.
In fact, he can’t remember his children ever expressing any fear for his safety. However, he acknowledged that, though his wife may not have openly stated that she was fearful, he knew that “deep down she had her own trepidations”.
Asked what he intended to do after Wednesday when he clears his desk, Hinds said: “Be a citizen.”
He added: “In fact, what I will try to do is go back to age 18 and try to live as a normal citizen for the period of my leave, and after that I will weigh my options.”