By Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Pusey – File
DONALD PUSEY stalks the recreation room at the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (S.A.T.F.) headquarters after making a winning shot during a round of pool. Basking in the glory of his master stroke, the khaki-clad street cop faces his small audience with the swagger of a game cock. "Clean! What a shot!" he exclaimed, before taking a swig of beer.
Pusey, a Senior Superintendent, is head of the S.A.T.F., an elite squad in the Jamaica Constabulary Force assigned to track Jamaica's most notorious criminals and monitor some of the country's toughest areas.
The previous day, in tandem with a detachment from the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), the unit captured Joel Andem, this country's most wanted man. Though playing down Andem's capture as just "another day of policing", Pusey's jovial mood contradicts his humble stance. On Wednesday, shortly after Andem was picked up by the combined squad, Pusey told reporters that the arrest of the 40-year-old fugitive came after months of networking by the S.A.T.F. and their counterparts in the JDF's Military Intelligence Unit. Andem and his gang, which has its genesis in east Kingston, had been allegedly terrorising parts of St. Andrew for four years. Since he was linked to the kidnapping of businesswoman Sylvia Edwards in July, 2000 Pusey and his team have been on his trail.
"If you are dealing with public enemy number one, irrespective of how long they are out there you have to pursue them," said Pusey, leaning on the pool table. "This man has been out there for a long time and we have gone through a lot to capture him."
PURPLE PATCH
Andem's arrest has come at a time when the police are reaping from a purple patch.
In March, they arrested two alleged drug lords in Montego Bay and one month later nabbed another nine persons who they believe have ties to the illegal drug trade. There has also been tragedy and embarrassment. Six policemen have been murdered so far this year with another five, including Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, Pusey's former colleague in the dis-banded Crime Management Unit (CMU) charged with non-capital murder for the April, 2003 deaths of four persons in Kraal, Clarendon.
Lanky, with flecks of grey in his hair, Pusey looks every inch the hardened street cop. He talks with a smoker's rasp, swears regularly and is driven by the adrenalin of the frontline; in his early 50s he is still on the streets though his rank allows him the comfort of an administrative post.
"It's very important to be out there, I have never thought about a desk job although in my capacity I have to do 'admin' but it is my view that being on the road keeps you fit and well," he said. "I have a set of guys who are good, and boss man I believe in leading from the front."
Detective Inspector Altemorth 'Parra' Campbell, who has known Pusey for more than 30 years, says Pusey's passion for crime-fighting is typical of the persons who joined the JCF in the early 1970s.
"He's very committed, has no fear of anything," said Campbell.
Unlike the media-savvy Adams, Pusey says he prefers to keep a low profile and steers clear of sensitive topics. He refuses to discuss the CMU, reputed corruption in the force or the police's tense relationship with local human rights groups. Declaring that he is not a historian and therefore won't go into the past, he refused to say what it is that his group is doing that is different from how other similar elite groups operated in the past.
"I won't go down any of those roads," he said.
FAMILY
For security reasons, Pusey is also secretive about his family. He hails from Hanover and says he is the fifth of 10 children born to parents whom he described as "labourers".
He told The Sunday Gleaner that he decided to join the force when he saw the impressive profile of policemen. According to him, "A lotta dem I saw did clean as a whistle, proud. Dem walk 'roun' the property like dem own it."
Since joining the J.C.F. in 1971, Pusey has been stationed in some of Jamaica's toughest communities. He was with the Mobile Reserve for 21 years, leaving that division with the rank of Assistant Superintendent, before going on to the Flying Squad for a seven-month stay. In the past 12 years, he has done three stints with the S.A.T.F. as well as working in Spanish Town, Hunts Bay and East Kingston. Pusey has also figured prominently in several of the force's elite crime squads including ACID (later changed to the Special Anti-Crime Task Force) and the CMU which he headed jointly with the controversial Adams.
So much has changed since Donald Pusey joined the JCF. The job has become more dangerous and the police are consistently chastised by human rights advocates and some citizens for alleged physical abuse and questionable shootings. Despite these challenges, he says he still enjoys being a policeman.
"I don't have any frustrations when it comes on to this job. If I had to go and join the police force all over again I would do it," he said.
