THE precocious, pint-sized preschoolers seated behind their desks in Class 2K at Allman Town Infant School light up at the sight of a group of adults standing by the classroom door.

The visiting quartet at the early childhood institution on Teachers’ Day, in the first week of Child Month, are team members from the Police Civilian Oversight Authority (PCOA).

They are introduced to the curious four-year-olds by their educator Charmaine Henry who informs that the adults before them come bearing gifts: colouring books.

The 10-page books are retooled images from the top six winners and participants in the Transforming Our Police Service (TOPS) Secondary School Poster Competition themed, ‘Imaging #AForce4Good’, which PCOA first held in November 2023 in Area One. The artistic interpretations in-between the book’s pages reflect positive interactions between citizens and law enforcement.

For Andrew Beaumont, senior director of inspections and monitoring at PCOA, who makes a quick impression on the little ones with his high-fives and easy rapport, the opportunity to present the books showing good relationships with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) “is very important to begin to cultivate a partnership and participation in security from a child’s view of the police at an early age”.

“The visuals not only reinforce trust and confidence in the police, but the children are more likely to seek help and give help to the police because they see them as friends and allies,” Beaumont added.

Elaborating on the rationale behind repurposing the TOPS poster competition’s creative executions, the PCOA director said, “Transferring the artwork [to] colouring books breaks down the technical issue of police-citizen partnership in a way that is age-appropriate that children can understand. The colouring book and artwork combination is a basic learning platform that can work to develop literacy and numeracy through numbers, colours and shapes as the book has a code to suggest what colours to use, in a fun way. It also provides an opportunity for discussion with the children on what the artwork represents, and allows them to express their own perspectives on police-citizen relationships.”

Grateful for the donation of books to the children at the 104-year-old inner-city institution, Henry explained their relevance in the teaching process.

“They are very useful, first of all, for children to identify colours and know which to use for each item they are colouring, so they don’t just randomly select a colour for anything,” said the early childhood educator who has dedicated the last 25 years of her professional life to the classroom at Allman Town Infant School.

“For example, in the book they are talking about the policeman on the first page we are colouring. So our policemen in Jamaica, their uniforms have specific colours so they wouldn’t just take up orange or yellow because that’s not a part of the uniform, so they would use the correct colours for the uniforms. Colouring is very important. It also helps with fine motor skills,” the veteran teacher noted.

As for what has kept her in the job for a quarter-century, her answer is straightforward: “The children and the community.

“I love teaching in general, and the children are loving. I see the need to be here to help motivate and stimulate whatever they already know. These children, even though they are from an inner-city area, some very brilliant children come from this community and I just love working with them and their parents,” she said.

Following their Allman Town visit, the PCOA team next ventured to Alpha Infant School to share additional colouring books with children of the South Camp Road institution.

The colouring book originates from PCOA’s poster competition that is held in tandem with the annually staged TOPS programme which includes: a competition held in one of five JCF area commands; an awards ceremony; a performance review meeting with the JCF hierarchy at which targets for improvement are agreed upon; and a re-inspection to determine if these targets are met.

This year the TOPS competition, along with the poster competition, will be held in Area Five, which includes St Thomas, St Andrew North, St Catherine North, and St Catherine South police divisions. The poster competition is now in its third year.