In Jamaica, unlike most other police jurisdictions in the world, we don’t fight crime, we go to war with gangs. This includes countries like Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, and a few others I can think of.

The impact, therefore, in every respect, on the officers who fight this war is similar to what soldiers who actually fight wars in international conflicts experience. There are, of course, differences. One notable difference is you go home to your family most of the time, unlike the soldiers who are sent overseas. The other is that a tour abroad for a combatant is usually a year. And you could do several.

Police officers who fight gangs will spend about 15 years or more before your rank takes you out of the physical conflict. Now, I realise the degree and magnitude of conflict may differ and I get that, but high-risk entry into little houses is the same science whether you are in Fallaujah or Central Village.

The primary similarity is that guys with guns may be behind those doors in both environments — as well as innocent people. The primary difference is that the guy behind that door in Fallaujah with a gun is maybe a bad guy or maybe a normal guy who believes he is defending his home, but the one in Central Village with a gun is just a criminal looking for a home to invade.

All these years I can only recall seeing one major crime fighter suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but I’m sure there are more. The damage to the family of the front-line fighter and the relationship he enjoys with them is also significant and largely ignored by the public because they don’t understand or even recognise the issues created by fighting a war with gangs and being a husband and a dad every Sunday. Let’s start at basics.

Back in the early 90s I was involved in a murder matter. I was also trying to plan my wedding. Every time I had a date in mind that included a cruise, the court set a date that clashed with it. I want you to try and sell to an expectant bride that the wedding date can’t be set because of a judge in Spanish Town.

When I really got involved in hardcore policing, such as working on special squads in the early 2000s, is when I was no longer married, as I had separated in 2001. If I had still been married there would be no way that I could have been as dedicated as I was and am to this day. You see, although I had young children in the early 2000s, and I was really involved with them, it’s different when you are part of a nuclear family.

You may have the kids on weekends and holidays, but most of the time no one is looking for you to be coming home. Kids are not looking for you to do homework. So you can really dedicate yourself to the war. However, this is not the model that is encouraged.

Even at this stage of my service, setting travel dates is really hard despite a new generation of far more understanding courts. In essence, your life revolves around the war. And the squad becomes your immediate family. Then there are officers who have paid the ultimate price, not by them dying, but their family members being targeted and killed. Yes, this actually does happen. I know of two officers whose direct family members were killed, one his mother and the other his infant daughter.

One of my team members had his home shot up and three members of his family wounded. This is the dynamic that differs from going to war in a foreign land. Your family is not insulated.

So can you actually go to work or war, depending on how you look at it, kick off doors, engage in combat, survive, and go home to help with geometry? It’s not limited to squad members. Can you work in a lock-up, try and control these soulless prisoners who will kill you just because they can, and then go home with a soft tone and tame heart?

So who makes the best squad man? A man with no family going home to, or one who sees the reason he fights every time he goes home? I’m not sure. I just know I could not have dedicated the time and withstood the uncertainty if I had been a typical family man.

One of the issues is that a squad man is on standby 24 hours a day. This means that any family event can be interrupted, to include Christmas dinners, birthdays, and anniversaries. Then there are the hits that are put out on you. This, for obvious reasons, causes changes in schedules that are very important to the development of children. The hits put out on your family steal your humanity, and if you are not strong, it also steals your conscience.

The warrior in a foreign land has the unbridled support of his Government. This is necessary. He didn’t send himself to war. The officer enjoys the support of the organisation and the Government, well, most of the Government, but he rarely enjoys the support of the Opposition. This is the difference.

It’s bad to criticise soldiers overseas. It’s good politics to criticise the police force from the Opposition bench, and your family hears it. They also watch the bloggers who will say anything for a ‘like’.

A study needs to be conducted on the divorce rate of serving front-line cops, the multiple babymothers phenomenon, and middle-aged bachelors in the force so as to understand the macro effect of this never-ending war.

We are now in the era of the highest output ever from crime fighters in Jamaica. This is when Jamaica will be asking the most from the force. We need to find a creative methodology to limit the impact on the families of these officers.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com