‘Pusey and Hewitt were hardcore crime-fighters’

They were crime-fighters of an era when guns were less prevalent but the vileness and coldheartedness of Jamaica’s gangsters were regarded as much the same as today... or worse.

Even in death, the legacies and crime-fighting methods of retired Senior Superintendent Delroy Hewitt and Assistant Commissioner of Police Donald ‘Duke’ Pusey will live on, and according to former colleagues, should be instilled in young police officers to cultivate morale and duty among them.

Revered for their decades of service to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), both men died a week apart earlier this month. Pusey died on May 1, and Hewitt passed away on May 7. Both were reportedly ailing for some time.

Pusey began his career in the constabulary in 1968 and quickly rose through the ranks, serving in various capacities, including detective and senior superintendent. He was instrumental in the fight against organised crime in Jamaica, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s when the country was plagued by gang violence.

Hailed as a career police officer, Hewitt’s over 40 years in the force were not void of controversy. During his time with the JCF, he was promoted through the ranks and was appointed a superintendent of police on January 1, 2006. In April 2011, on the recommendation of the Police Service Commission (PSC), he was promoted to the rank of senior superintendent of police.

Their contributions, former crime-fighters believe, should be marked monumentally within the constabulary – a beloved institution that even after service evoked pride, commitment, anger, and frustration for the men.

According to the retired policemen, gangs and their crimes remain cyclical and fuelled by a general breakdown of society locally and internationally, but the constabulary has moved away from tried and tested crime-fighting methods that have worked.

This is even as the JCF, in its Transformations Expo at the National Arena in Kingston last week, showcased an array of technological crime-fighting systems and innovations aimed at reassuring Jamaicans of police efforts to track down, nab, and secure convictions against criminals.

‘CASE STUDIES SHOULD BE DONE’

“Hewitt and Pusey, their period of operation should be taught at training school. The crime statistics of that period, the methodology, and the relationship with the community should be taught at the academy. Some case studies should be done,” retired Deputy Superintendent of Crime at the Hunts Bay Police Station, Oswald Ayer, told The Sunday Gleaner last week.

“Hewitt’s methods have died with him. Pusey’s methods have died with him, and all that cohort of the seventies. We lost that. The police force does not seem to be cataloguing these tings. They write it off and criminals are running rampant.”

“When I listen to the reports of crimes being committed now, it is the same addresses where the crimes were being done in the 70s. They are the same communities. So, there is a lot to learn from how things were dealt with back then,” he argued.

Ayer continued, “That cohort, cops in the 70s, resorted to fighting the crime most effective and most efficient. We had the benefit of some legislation, we came through the period of the state of emergency, and we had communities that cooperated with us.”

“And we did not see official corruption as having any part in crime fighting,” he charged, recalling many operations with Hewitt.

CONTROVERSIAL POLICE ‘SQUADS’ ERA

Both Hewitt and Pusey reportedly served at the Mobile Reserve for some time, before transitioning into the controversial police “squads” era that racked up questionable police killings and international attention. Later on, they were assigned to divisional policing.

During that period, there were countless shootouts, countless cops killed and even more gunmen meeting their demise, Ayer said. But along with the fear and controversy that squads like Echo Base, Raiding Squad, the Eradication Squad, and the Special Anti-Crime TaskForce (popularly known as ACID) brought, was the ability to win over law-abiding citizens, he noted.

One of the most notable of Pusey’s successes was the capture of then Jamaica’s most wanted man Joel Andem in May 2004. Then a superintendent, Pusey led a police-military team that nabbed Andem in a surprise predawn operation.

Andem was wanted for murder, extortion, and other heinous crimes, and Pusey became famous for saying how the gangster “trembled like a badly tuned truck” when the lawmen arrived.

Pusey was also involved in the operation that saw the death of Donovan ‘Bulbie’ Bennett, the then-reputed leader of the Spanish Town, St Catherine-based Clansman Gang, and was also a stickler for intelligence-driven operations.

“Mr Pusey was a very serious and hardworking policeman. He was always inclined to take on the most difficult operations. When I was chief of staff, he would always lead the police team in some of those major operations without fear or favour,” recalled former police commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin.

Hewitt’s career was dogged by reports of fatal shootings which prompted the human rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) to legally contest his promotion to superintendent in 2011.

There were a reported 28 allegations of fatal shootings involving Hewitt and his team at the time but both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal rejected arguments by the JFJ that the JCF should have conducted investigations into the allegations prior to his promotion.

After years of legal battle and following Hewitt’s retirement, Jamaica’s final court, the UK-based Privy Council, in March 2019, ruled that while there was no statutory duty by the PSC to conduct an investigation into the allegations against the crime-fighter, a proper discharge of the commission’s function required it.

RETIRED COPS HAVE VALUE

Jack Smith, retired inspector at formerly the Mobile Reserve, feels older and retired cops should be called upon to give guidance to young officers. Both Pusey and Hewitt were his juniors during his 40-year stint at the JCF.

“I don’t know why they can’t see that what they need to do is have the former guys, at least one in every division, to teach the young men and women in the force what they have gone through and how to deal with things,” Smith reasoned.

“The men and women need to be well rounded so you don’t go out there go lean up. You stand on your own at all times.”

“Pusey and Hewitt, they didn’t play around, especially on operations,” he charged, tying their relentlessness and commitment to the rigours of the training during the early years, “but now, things are not so strict”.

“Everybody you see now on duty is a phone they have, as if a phone can protect them. The older police were different. Condolence to Pusey’s and Hewitt’s families. They were really strong crime-fighters,” Smith told The Sunday Gleaner.

As it was in the older days, police salary remains poor, so it should not be an excuse for poor service or early resignation, the senior cops posited.

And they are not naive about the frustrations of the job, noting issues like downed telephone lines at some stations, including most in Portmore, St Catherine, of which cops complained last week.

“Pusey and Hewitt were probably a year or two before me, and Pusey was always an upfront man,” offered retired Senior Superintendent Altermoth ‘Parra’ Campbell, who gave more than 40 years of service to the force.

“Pusey and Hewitt were hardcore crime-fighters and I don’t know if we will ever see police like them again,” he continued.

“I don’t see the dedication and the commitment that they displayed in our time. Society has changed, it has broken down, and that change has also affected the police.”

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com