Congrats, Constable Hillette Virgo
A few Fridays ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Woman Constable Hillette Virgo of the Montego Hills division on my regular radio slot of Cliff Hughes online.
She is a most impressive member of the JCF. Working in troubled inner-city communities and placing much of her focus on intervention with at-risk young boys in schools, she has been a deserving winner.
Overall, it was her wide community involvement as a child and women’s advocate, and using that advocacy in crucial areas in her five years as a cop, that most likely earned her the award. A mother of two young children, Constable Virgo epitomises where the next generation of policing need to moves its focus.
When we spoke last Thursday, she said: “I feel so light, lately. Peaceful, but very aware that this is tough work and it is never-ending. I have embraced my position at Montego Hills, and I intend to work assiduously to do my best in galvanising the community – as I was assigned to do. The community response has been very, very good so far.”
Ms Virgo is close to completion of her master’s degree, but I wanted her to give me a snippet of what policing is like in her area.
“A little example. Two persons who report on condition of bail on two different occasions since I’ve been back at the station expressed how happy they are to see me back there ... . I’ve always taken interest in them ... find out what they have been doing occupationally, what are their plans for the future in terms of career, and encourage them to keep positive and stay out of trouble.” “How do you follow that up?” I asked. “That has been plaguing me from I’ve been working at the station level, to do some form of development programme for these young men – give them a second chance, seek to influence a positive mindset, etc, a skills expo, some kind of workshop. As you well know, scarce resources are at the root of just about all government policy, and the JCF is not immune to that.
“All of us need to pull together, to pull each other up, and to extend our roles in the communities under our care. There is no quick fix to violent crime in this country, but there are many youngsters in our schools, in troubled households, who have anger issues. To the extent that we, the members of the JCF, can act to stave off the next set of violent young criminals, we need to network in the various communities and come in more at the prevention end instead of the damaging and dangerous reactive end.”
Again, congrats, Ms Virgo!