ALTHOUGH policemen and women across the country are still likely grappling with the implications of the second murder/suicide in recent weeks where the killers had ties to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), its chaplain says the Force is not in a crisis and has not been weakened by these events.
The country awoke to news Monday of a horrific murder/suicide in Manchester — where Woman Corporal Bevon Hutchinson-Anderson, her 12-year-old son, Keinon Shaw, and the child's father, Rohan Shaw, were killed by ex-cop Osbourne Whitton, who then killed himself.
However, chaplain, Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary Welsh said members of the Force remained resolute and committed to their profession.
"We are not in crisis mode and we are not in panic mode," he told the Observer.
"We want to reassure members, firstly, that we are not in a panic mode, they are to continue to offer a high level of service like they have been trained to do. And we want to let the public know that we are in need of their help and support."
"Underneath we are hurting," Welsh said, but quickly added that everything was "under control" and policemen and women are trying to restore a sense of normalcy within the ranks.
Welsh acknowledged that the closeness of Monday's incident to that which occurred on April 7 in Three Hills, St Mary — where Corporal Wayne Llewellyn shot his wife and killed four members of her family before committing suicide — raised questions about the mental stability of members of the JCF.
He asserted that there was no evidence to suggest that the two incidents are linked, but conceded that law enforcement officers work under tremendous strain.
Welsh referenced the advisory out of the police commissioner's office last week following the St Mary incident which urged policemen and women who were experiencing undue stress to seek help from the Chaplaincy Unit and for cops to be on the lookout for colleagues who may be on the verge of a breakdown and to encourage them to use the counselling services offered.
"Our commissioner has recently asked us to step it up a notch to say if members observe other members showing signs of breaking with reality to speak with them and to report it to the authorities, so that action can be taken," said Welsh.
The day after the Three Hills tragedy, Police Commissioner Owen Ellington said cops with a history of instability, abusive behaviour, protracted and violent domestic disputes, alcoholism and substance abuse, or who are suspected of having mental problems, should be relieved of their firearms and therapy scheduled immediately.
But Welsh said there has been no increased levels of reporting of such cases to the Chaplaincy Unit.
"What we have had is persons calling in to express their support and asking 'how can we help?' and 'what do we look for?' But it's not that we are overwhelmed with persons coming seeking counselling. That would suggest we are panicking and we are not," he said.
"We are stable, we are highly trained and we are just responding to the challenges we are all facing and executing that oath of office we have sworn," insisted the JCF Chaplain.
He said his counselling teams from the Chaplaincy Unit sprang into action as soon as news of the murder/suicide broke, travelling to the scene of the killings, locating relatives of the deceased and offering comfort and grief counselling to the colleagues of the woman corporal.
"We are merely responding to what is an unfortunate incident, and that we have been trained to do in situations of trauma; we pull together resources from the medical services, the Chaplaincy, peer counselling and that's what we did," said Welsh.
