‘I leave with peace’

The chair he occupied and the office he shared with his team of investigators and personal assistants in Kingston is now vacant as of midnight Saturday night, but retired Deputy Police Commissioner (DCP) Fitz Bailey’s presence looms large in the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the organisation he has served for four decades.

Bailey turned 60 years old on Sunday and, in keeping with JCF policy, became retired on that day.

Bailey has spent much of the week being serenaded and thanked for his service to the Force and on Saturday, speaking with The Gleaner, he was at peace.

“I leave with peace and I leave in peace. I leave with a clear conscience and clean heart. I leave feeling satisfied that I went into an organisation and I have kept myself from being defiled in an organisation that has lots of temptations; and I am glad that I was able to touch the lives of so many persons in a positive way,” said Bailey, who has moved through the ranks from constable to second only to commissioner.

He takes pride in the cases he was able to have closed, for justice to be served, but remains cognisant that Jamaica’s murder rate remains among the top three in the world with 48 murders per 100,000. Despite those statistics, it’s been a busy week with many pleasant moments, which he has used to encourage members of the constabulary.

“I have basically said to them, keep the fundamentals in place. Maintain your dignity. Offer service with professionalism, dignity and respect, and be consistent in what you do. Don’t let your guard down, because if anything should happen, individuals should be able to say, this behaviour is not consistent with the person we know,” said the experienced lawman.

“Service is the mantra. Service with integrity and professionalism. And if they do that, the other transformative activities will fall in place. So that is one of the messages that I have been trying to instil,” he told The Gleaner.

He said many individuals in and outside of the JCF have been using the opportunity to say thanks for little things which they considered of great importance that he did for them. Not one to dwell on helping others, he said he could not remember many of those actions he was told he had taken.

“Helping others comes natural to me, because that is how I was raised. When you do things without expecting something in return, that’s how it goes. You have caused a smile to be on someone’s face. And I encouraged my former colleagues of the JCF to makes sure that in their interaction with the public, they leave better than how they came to you,” Bailey encouraged.

Bailey, born in rural Jamaica and one of 10 siblings, recalled growing up and being inculcated with values of discipline and decency.

“I grew up with the rural concept of how children were raised with values, in terms of community involvement and community raising children. I am from the old school and remember that if you did something at school and your parents heard, you had to be prepared for the strict discipline in the form of corporal punishment that would be applied at home,” he said, recalling also how much children cared about not bringing shame to their parents.

He urged members of the Force to be courteous when responding to the citizenry; use emotional intelligence, and understand that when individuals are in deep distress, they are not focused. He urged them to learn to read the situation and circumstances well and as trained personnel, leave a good impression on the customer.

“That will auger well for not only individual police officer, but for the JCF. I joined the JCF to be a good police officer. Maybe I have tried my best to do that, and I have encouraged them to follow my footsteps. Be good mentors,” he urged, as he bid farewell.

He said the JCF has made significant reputational gains, and he urged its members to build on it, and advance it even more. In reputational building, integrity was utmost, he told The Gleaner.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com