Mark Beckford, Staff Reporter

Assistant Commissioner of Police Jevene Bent (far right) salutes the new Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin (extreme left) as he arrives at his new office on Old Hope Road, St. Andrew, yesterday morning. Looking on (from left) are Senator Arthur Williams, Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security; Gilbert Scott, Permanent Secretary in the ministry and Derrick Smith, Minister of National Security. - Contributed photo

Newly appointed Police Commissioner, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, is vowing to make the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) the best in the world, providing Jamaicans with a safe environment in which to live and work.

"To accomplish these objectives, there must be change, change will not be easy, but it is essential to move us from where we are to where we all want to be," Rear Admiral Lewin told a small group of journalists, police personnel and National Security Ministry officials during the low-keyed event at his new Old Hope Road office in St. Andrew.

In what was expected to be a lengthy event, with pageantry and routine, the former chief of staff of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) was unveiled as the 26th commissioner of the JCF on the steps of the commissioner's office by the Minister of National Security, Derrick Smith.

Rear Admiral Lewin, who is scheduled to articulate his plans for the office in a press conference on Thursday, gave a synopsis of his aim for the JCF.

"I'm honoured to have this opportunity to give further service to my country in a new capacity as Commissioner of Police," he said. "I know through many years of service in the military, and the military's long-standing relationship with the police, that we have a large number of good people in the Jamaica Constabulary Force who want to see the force elevated to high international standards."

Mr. Smith also welcomed the new police commissioner and called on all of Jamaica to support him as well.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Keith 'Trinity' Gardener, who was also in attendance, told The Gleaner he believed the appointment of Rear Admiral Lewin was the heralding of a new breed of commissioners and that he would be throwing his support behind him.

"Discipline is fundamental to anything within any organisation and the force is no less among those organisations. Indiscipline is the feeding tree of crime and once we deal with that successfully we will invariably reduce crime."

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Reneto Adams, who publicly voiced his interest in the post but was turned down, expressed support for his new boss.

"They saw in him what they want, by way of policing, and we just have to abide by that and we just have to respect that," SSP Adams said. "If it were, you know, in my case that [I was] being appointed I would also want to require the support of everybody."

mark.beckford@gleaner.jm.com