CISOCA boss is dead

Deputy Superintendent of Police Herfa Beckford, the hero cop who was later elevated to head the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), has died.

She was 46.

Beckford died suddenly in hospital yesterday from medical complication. The deputy superintendent was given the charge to head CISOCA in 2006 following its name change from the Police Rape Unit.

Her death has sent shock waves through the ranks of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

"The passing of Ms Beckford is a great loss that has taken the entire CISOCA family by surprise. The sense of commitment that she brought to her job can never be replaced," Deputy Superintendent Michael Phipps, who leads the Area Four police, said yesterday.

In May 1996, Beckford was awarded a medal of gallantry after she shot and killed one of two armed robbers during an altercation at the Windward Road Medical Clinic.

Beckford, then a corporal, was six months pregnant. She had gone to the clinic to do her monthly antenatal examination when the crooks, posing as patients, entered the facility.

Beckford challenged one of the men, who stabbed at her several times. She fired her service revolver, killing him. His assailant attempted to flee but was held and subsequently charged for robbery with aggravation and illegal possession of firearm.