In another week veteran police officer George Quallo will take on the tough job of leading the charge to tame Jamaica’s crime monster when he takes over the helm of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) as the country’s 29th commissioner of police.

News of Quallo’s selection for the top job, which takes effect April 18, broke yesterday on social media and was later confirmed by National Security Minister Robert Montague, who told the Jamaica Observer that the Government is committed to supporting the new police chief. “We call on all Jamaicans to do so as well,” he said.

“Mr Quallo has demonstrated the ability to lead the JCF at an important point of transformation; strengthening relationships with the other bodies that make up the island’s security architecture,” a release from the ministry later stated.

Acting Police Commissioner Novelette Grant, a year-and-a-half away from retirement, was in some circles tipped to take the job. Grant was appointed acting commissioner shortly after Dr Carl Williams retired from the post last December.

The appointment of Quallo, a 40-year veteran of the constabulary, comes 16 months after he was promoted to the rank of deputy commissioner of police in charge of territorial operations for police areas One to Five.

Quallo, a past student of Oberlin High School, grew up in King Weston in rural St Andrew.

Like commissioners before him, Quallo will be the man at the front charged with tackling the country’s crime problem, which left 1,350 people dead last year — up from 1,005 in 2014 and 1,192 in 2015 — despite numerous plans and strategies that have been rolled out by the police high command.

“This is a grand opportunity for all well-thinking Jamaicans to come on board and fight this monster called crime… work with us,” the incoming police commissioner urged in an interview on Nationwide@ Five yesterday evening.

The new police chief is expected to effectively rally the men and women under his command to uproot criminality and dismantle the 266 gangs which former commissioner Williams said had wreaked havoc across the country’s most volatile communities. There is also the challenge of lottery scamming, which has tainted the country’s reputation internationally and, according to the police, helped to drive up the island’s homicide rate to its highest level in half-a-decade.

Shortly after his appointment as a deputy commissioner last year Quallo told the Observer that his style was to “hit the ground” and open better lines of communication among the membership of the JCF in order to improve the execution of tasks.

“The formal communication sometimes don’t reach to the ground level the way it is intended. So somewhere between the sender and the receiver there is a little bit of a distortion and you may even find in some instances different meanings,” he said then.

It is anticipated that this is the type of approach that the new commissioner will bring to a police force which is overburdened with the harsh crime realities and inadequate resources.

He said that this communication strategy had led to the re-energising of officers at various ranks.

“Last year, the commissioner started some specific chat groups… that, to me, is where the commissioner, or the deputy commissioner is able to communicate directly and can motivate the people… different groups at different levels, you are able to motivate people. It’s a good thing when even a deputy superintendent … a shift commander, is hearing the commissioner sending a

WhatsApp message to say, ‘excellent work team members, keep it up.’ To hear the area commander sending out little messages in the morning to say ‘gentlemen, this is what happened last year this time; this year we want to focus on…’ So it is like you are more in a time and space, focusing your energies, focusing your people directly, and I think it is working wonders,” he stated.

From March 2012 to December 2015 Quallo served as assistant commissioner of police in charge of Area Four — the Corporate Area. In 2009 he led efforts to rebuild the JCF armoury by implementing rigorous internal controls and strengthening accountability for firearms within the force. He was also credited with restructuring the Manchester Police Division between 2002 and 2006, with an emphasis on community policing, resulting in a significant reduction in all crimes in the division.