Anderson under fire from rank and file members

In just over a year, Joel Hamilton has gone from a staff sergeant in the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) to a district constable in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), heading the security detail for Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson, and is now assistant superintendent of police in the same role.

His appointment to the officer corps of the JCF, which was made by the governor general on the advice of the Police Service Commission, has ignited a firestorm of criticisms directed at Anderson, the former army chief, by rank-and-file members.

"The commissioner of police just promoted a DC (district constable) to the officer rank. When there is corruption from the top, what do you expect from the lower ranks?" one member of the JCF posted in a chat group for cops.

"The CP (commissioner of police) is showing no respect for the gazetted ranks of the JCF when he promotes this person," the JCF member added.

However, while acknowledging that Hamilton led Anderson's security detail as a district constable, head of the JCF's communication unit, Deputy Superintendent Dahlia Garrick, pushed back at the criticisms, saying the former JDF staff sergeant was never promoted to the rank of assistant superintendent.

Instead, she said that Hamilton, who has nearly two decades of security experience, resigned as district constable before he was appointed through the normal channels.

Garrick insisted, too, that Hamilton's appointment did not come at the expense of other cops awaiting promotion as the rank of assistant superintendent is a "training rank".

"It is reserved for entry-level experts, persons who are coming into the force with certain expertise. If we look back over the past decade, we would have seen how many persons have entered the organisation," said Garrick, who acknowledged that she is aware of the unease among rank-and-file cops.

"We have architects, we have doctors, we have professionals who come in with certain skill sets and expertise. So this is nothing unusual," she added.

In addition, she explained that in the normal course of promotions, persons coming up through the ranks of the JCF move from inspector to deputy superintendent, skipping the rank of assistant superintendent. "So, in other words, it is not as if he was given an assignment that will hinder anyone's upward mobility," she asserted.

"This is not something for any member of the JCF to be threatened by. We should not see this as a pass-over," Garrick told The Gleaner.

The issue is expected to come up when Anderson meets later today with the executive of the Jamaica Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file cops.

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