Although guardians of the law who work with Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Fitz Bailey accept his impending retirement, they are of the opinion that, if asked, the man who had set himself a target of “ridding Jamaica of gangs” would not hesitate to continue sharing his vast experience as, they say, he is “beyond patriotic” and a virtual “think tank on crime”.

Bailey will mark his 60th birthday on September 8 and as such will end his four decades of service in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) on September 7.

And although he rose through the ranks to his current position as deputy commissioner with responsibility for the crime and security portfolio, his law enforcement colleagues say he never forgot that he was a constable and operates as a commander who is accessible to all, regardless of rank.

Bailey, who was first assigned to the Beat and Foot Patrol Division, now also has oversight responsibility for the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), Intelligence Branch and the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC).

He led the revamping and reorganising of the detective training programme to include the instruction of crime analysts who are deployed to all police divisions and area headquarters in the JCF.

“He provides very good leadership, very good direction and guidance to the investigators on the ground, and even more importantly he supports them,” Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Claudette Thompson told the Jamaica Observer.

“Mr Bailey is terribly responsible. It became his goal, for want of a better word, to rid Jamaica of the gangs and, by extension, gang crimes. He set himself that target and he worked assiduously in doing so. So, although the crime portfolio is a large portfolio, he really did focus on gangs, and although many people will criticise and have different things to say, the reality is he has managed to penetrate the gangs by bringing down the leadership of the different organised groupings,” Thompson said.

The career prosecutor, who first encountered Bailey during her days as an assistant Crown counsel in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), said he has stayed true to form.

“Mr Bailey wasn’t just the leader when it came to gang investigations. What stands out for me is how accessible he is. He is the deputy commissioner of police but he never forgot that he was a constable. So he isn’t the officer who you have to go through his secretary or his assistant or somebody else to get to him. Mr Bailey is accessible to Crown counsel, assistant DPP, deputy DPP, senior deputy DPP, and you get the same level of commitment and service from him whatever rank you hold in the DPP’s office,” Thompson added.

“Apart from being the consummate supporter, supervisor, and investigator, welfare is important to him as well, and I’m not a police officer. But he minded our welfare throughout the gang prosecutions, So Miss [Paula] Llewellyn is the director of public prosecutions and she sought to get protective detail for us, but it was in line with what he wanted for us for the prosecutions we were doing,” she said.

For Thompson, one outstanding cameo of Bailey’s fearless leadership of C-TOC was his decision to take to the witness stand during the notorious Klansman trial after Chief Justice Bryan Sykes demanded answers as to why the main witnesses, who were former gang members turned Crown witnesses, were not charged for the crimes they admitted to.

“Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey took the witness box and allowed himself to be questioned and cross-examined and questioned by the judge as well, about the decision which he took responsibility for, and after he gave evidence as it relates to that decision nobody else asked,” Thompson recalled sublimely.

Bailey’s hands-on approach and leadership style was further on display when ‘Witness Number One’, the Crown’s star witness in the Klansman trial, detailed for the court how on going to the C-TOC headquarters he sat face to face with Bailey, who listened to the information he had to share about the gang.

The veteran investigator, though initially sceptical, was solidly on board when the witness fortuitously received a phone call from an unwitting Andre “Blackman” Bryan, the now convicted leader of the gang, during that encounter.

Bailey was observed on several occasions in the courtroom at the Supreme Court during that trial, as well as the King Valley Gang trial, alongside several members of his staff as they listened to the proceedings.

Asked if she was sad to see him go, given that his retirement comes in the midst of the fight against gangs which Prime Minister Andrew Holness last Monday declared was on in earnest, Thompson said: “Sad to see him go in the capacity of DCP Bailey, but he is alive, he is healthy and fair, and I suspect if he is asked to assist in any other way he will. So we shouldn’t behave as if he is gone. We will not bury him. I understand he won’t be in the same capacity, but he is still Mr Bailey who has Jamaica’s security interest at heart.”

Current DPP Llewellyn, who is on a sabbatical, described Bailey as “an investigative powerhouse”.

“He gets in the trenches; he is not in the stratosphere looking down on everybody else. Because of his investigative background he will be there with his team shoulder to shoulder. His commitment to the Jamaica Constabulary Force is first class and could only take second and third place to his commitment to his family and his God,” Llewellyn told the
Sunday Observer.

In hailing Bailey, who led several divisions in the JCF during his career, she said: “He is mentally tough and he is not intimidated by anybody. In that Klansman case and other high-profile matters, where there were security risks, Mr Bailey was not intimidated by anything or anyone no matter what the challenge was, and that confidence extended to the investigators who certainly had to face a lot of high risks, and that confidence also extended to our office.”

Bailey’s ascension up the ranks, she said, created no distance for anyone who needed his intervention, from the Bar to the Bench.

“It was well known in the office, if you had a problem in any of these divisions you could call Mr Bailey, because although he was of high rank he did not subscribe to this modality that befalls some people where, because you have a higher rank then you have excess ego taking over and neutralising your common sense. He would always make himself available, even to judges too, whether at first instance or in the high court. And if they say to Crown counsel or the registrar ‘I need to speak to Mr Bailey’, once he got the message, he would make himself available. I don’t know how he did it,” said Llewellyn, who has known Bailey for 25 years.

Zoning in on the anti-gang investigations, Llewellyn said key decisions and collaboration between C-TOC and her office turned the tide after the first few cases got dismal results.

“The system was taking a battering because the police were saying they had these investigations and they are bringing a lot of these matters to court and we were saying we were not able to indict. So almost simultaneously Mr Bailey and I consulted, and we had some plain speaking — he is a plain speaker — and we had a ‘come to Jesus moment’. I decided to set up an anti-gang unit in my office and he decided that several of his key and senior investigators at C-TOC would meet with us. We had case conferences looking at what caused the failure of cases and we started to reorient the investigations and the prosecution. This collaboration resulted in the successful prosecution of the Tesha Miller matter, and the partially successful Uchence Wilson matter and the Klansman matter,” Llewellyn shared.

“I certainly will miss him. I wish him well. He will be missed, especially by the Office of the DPP, and I know I can speak for every prosecutor, past and present, those now on the Bench and elsewhere. He is a model police officer, a committed police officer, giving service above self. He is very loyal to the force, but not loyal to the point where if anything was wrong he would not call it out. I salute him,” she said.

In the meantime, criminologist and security expert Dr Jason McKay said while Bailey has “earned his retirement, it is premature”.

“His service has been incredible; almost his entire time was spent in the CIB, so he is a think tank on crime and understanding our judicial system and our criminal justice system, so he has certainly earned his retirement, but I think it is premature. I think persons who are in non-combat categories like himself it is ridiculous to retire them at a set age,” McKay mused.

“It should be at a point when they are viewed to be unable to carry out the task, then they go on contracts or something like that, but 60 years old is not reasonable. You can’t look on a sergeant who is part of an assault team and a deputy commissioner of police who is in charge of crime and retire them based on the same rubric; they are not required to do the same thing. So you could make the general assumption that someone [at age] 60 perhaps doesn’t have the fast switch movement or the eyesight to deal with combat anymore, but what are you using to measure somebody who you require their mind and initiative skills and not their physical abilities?” added McKay.

“They should look at the model used by the Miami Police Department; retirement is something that is done based off of when you are unable to meet certain standards, or when you desire to retire after a certain number of years of service, not something that is imposed on you whether you like it or not,” argued McKay, himself a veteran crime fighter.

Asked to give his views on the possible implications of Bailey’s imminent departure with the State’s war against gangs now at fever pitch, McKay said, “Losing somebody like Fitz is going to affect a lot of things in general, but I wouldn’t say specifically as it relates to gang investigations.

“In relation to crime and the fact that we are in a crisis, we have to start making some decisions that don’t go through the usual process. Somebody needs to stand up and say this 60-year-old police officer, let’s look on it on a case-by-case basis. Right now we are only hurting ourselves in a war that we are, in effect, losing,” declared McKay.

“We are better than we were, and I would like to think we would one day get ourselves in better circumstance, but where we are now, after 50 years of fighting the gangs, we need to move away from just standard rules for the sake of being rules. We are really grateful for his service and looking forward to more great things from him on his new journey”.

One highly placed law enforcer who has worked with Bailey, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ,“In regards to his leadership he gets the job done. He is that policeman who is very much interested in results, very results-oriented. He is not just a leader, he applies himself, he comes down in all levels of leadership, he is very hands on. He is not the high and mighty who has a closed-door approach; he has an open-door approach. He will be missed; he has an immense love for policing which was unmatched, his love for country surpasses patriotism.”

Bailey holds a Master of Science in Psychology and Criminal Investigation from the University of Liverpool; a Master of Science in National Security and Strategies, The University of the West Indies, Mona; and an Associate Degree in Accounting from Management Institute for National Development.

He was instrumental in the review and reorganising of the JCF’s Crime Reporting and Case Management Policy, the development of a Stolen Motor Vehicle Policy and the establishment of a Cold Case Unit at the Major Investigations Division.

The veteran lawman has received training in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Trinidad, and El Salvador.

In the course of his involvement with criminal investigation and the training of investigators, Bailey has lectured on various aspects of criminology and is regarded for his significant contribution to the reform and modernisation of gang investigations in Jamaica.

Bailey was made a member of the Order of Distinction, Officer Class in 2021 and received the Medal of Honour for Meritorious Service in 2011. He is a minister of religion, a marriage officer, and a justice of the peace.

Deputy Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey (left) updates the press on the discovery of two bodies buried in an open field at Waterloo Lane, Spanish Town, St Catherine in June 2020. The unofficial burial site was believed to have been used by the Klansman gang to disposed of its victims. Its discovery came after an 18-month investigation into the activities of the gang. Beside Bailey is then Acting Assistant Commissioner Anthony McLaughlin, commanding officer for C-TOC. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)

LLEWELLYN… because of Fitz Bailey’s investigative background he will be there with his team shoulder to shoulder