A Cop’s Nightmare Story.…is This The Way The JCF Treats It’s Members.…

From time to time this writer and this medium speak on the Jamaica Constabulary Force the Agency which gave me the privilege of serving my country for roughly 10 years of my young life.
Despite having left many years ago I still support the work of the JCF , even as I continue to call for real and substantive changes in the Agency so that the lives of many more Jamaicans can be impacted positively as mine have been .
However there are times when the JCF has not acted with due diligence or propriety, in those instances despite my unwavering support I refuse to stand by and not speak out.
Here’s is an officer who is aggrieved I will allow him to speak for himself .

Name: Evon Blake

Occupation: Police Corporal

Address: Hunts Bay Police Station

St.Andrew South Division,

States,

I have been a mem­ber of the Jamaica Constabulary Force since July 9^th 1997; I was pro­mot­ed to cor­po­ral in December 2002,

On the 25^th day of May 2005, I was shot and injured dur­ing a shootout with gun men along Pretoria road Kingston 13. I suf­fered from a sev­ered right femoral artery and frac­tured right thigh bone. A vas­cu­lar repair of the artery was per­formed by Dr.Dott at the Kingston Public Hospital; I was lat­er hand­ed over to Dr.Phillip Waite for treat­ment rel­a­tive to the fracture.

In July 2007 I returned to work, I was ful­ly recu­per­at­ed and was able to car­ry out both phys­i­cal and admin­is­tra­tive duties as I saw was required of me.

After I was on duty I was ordered (via doc­u­men­ta­tion) to attend a med­ical board hear­ing at the Spanish Town Hospital in rela­tion to my injuries, it appeared irrel­e­vant to me at the time since I was already back on duty but I attend­ed in any case. The board rec­om­mend­ed that I remained on duty as there was no need for me to be sent back on sick leave.

On the 28^th day of October 2007 I was acci­den­tal­ly shot and injured by con­sta­ble S.williams at 12 gua­va road Kinston 11 while con­duct­ing an oper­a­tion on the instruc­tions of then SSP Derrick Knight, My injuries were gun­shot wound to my right groin which exit­ed through my right but­tocks, a right shat­tered hip joint and femoral head (shat­tered thigh bone). I was tak­en to the Kingston Public Hospital where I was treat­ed by Dr. Ion Neal and lat­er trans­ferred in his care at the St. Joseph Hospital, In November of this said year Neal per­formed a hip recon­struc­tive surgery on my right hip and I was lat­er released on November 25^thto recu­per­ate at home.

I was nev­er sent on a med­ical board even though I had been on injury leave for more than a hun­dred and eighty days. Despite my efforts the sys­tem seemed to have turned its back on me. I was nev­er coun­seled nor assist­ed in any way while at home. I had to access my NIS ben­e­fits myself along with med­ical appoint­ments and treat­ments for all those years untill now.

In March 2013 for the first time I was con­tact­ed by the Office of the Commissioner to attend a med­ical board on the 22^nd of March 2013 at the Spanish Town Hospital, pri­or to this there was no con­tact in rela­tion to my injuries. I was sup­posed to be med­ical board­ed after a hun­dred and eighty days on sick leave as accord­ing to the book of rules of the Jamaica Constabulary Force to deter­mine my fit­ness to work but this was after six years.
This was a breach of my rights under the said JCF own rules. I attend­ed the med­ical board and was informed by the doc­tor that I was not fit to car­ry out my duties because I was in need of a total hip replace­ment surgery.

On September 12, 2013 I was served with a doc­u­ment by detec­tive Inspector K.O.Bennett at my home, upon obser­va­tion this doc­u­ment was as a result of the med­ical board which was con­vened on March 22^nd 2013 at the Spanish Town Hospital. This doc­u­ment stat­ed that with­out the surgery I was unfit to car­ry out my duties in the JCF, but if the hip replace­ment was to be done I might be able to do admin­is­tra­tive duties.
The doc­u­ment also gave me the fol­low­ing options, “opt­ing for retire­ment on med­ical grounds or perus­ing the hip replace­ment surgery. The option of surgery was clear to me how­ev­er the option of retire­ment was not. As a result I respond­ed to the doc­u­ment with­in the four­teen days peri­od they gave me to respond and ask to be prop­er­ly advised as it relat­ed to the option of retire­ment on the 25^th of September 2013, Up until now my request have not been met by anyone.

On the 17^th day of June I vis­it­ed Dr. Grantel Dundas, he explained to me as a result of my com­plaints that I was in imme­di­ate need of the hip replace­ment surgery.
As a result on the 30^th day of July 2014 I sent a doc­u­ment to office of the com­mis­sion­er agree­ing to pur­sue the option of the hip replace­ment surgery even though I still did not received any com­mu­ni­ca­tions rel­a­tive to my request on the advice on the option to retire on med­ical grounds sent on the 25^th of September 2013. A copy of a med­ical report from the said doc­tor accom­pa­nied with an out­line of the cost of the surgery was also attached to this doc­u­ment. The ref­er­ence num­ber for all doc­u­ments sent was A19/​B1919.

In December 2015 one Mr. Hamilton con­tact­ed me from Human resource branch; he informed me that he was mak­ing prepa­ra­tion to pay for my surgery to be done. In January 2016 he con­tact­ed me again and informed me that the surgery was paid for and I would be con­tact­ed by the med­ical associate’s hos­pi­tal. In February 2016 I was con­tact­ed by an agent for this hos­pi­tal who informed me that my surgery was paid for and that I should con­tact my doc­tor to set a surgery date con­ve­nient. I con­tact­ed my doc­tor and an appoint­ment was set for me to vis­it him on Wednesday the 17^th day of February at 3pm .

On the 9^th day of February 2016 I was con­tact­ed by phone by a DSP McFarlane from hunts bay admin, she request­ed to speak to me on the mat­ter. On the 1oth day of February 2016 I was vis­it­ed by inspec­tor Quarry who advised me that my salary would be sus­pend­ed if I do not set a surgery date. I also spoke again with the DSP via phone while with Insp Quarry, I informed them both of my appoint­ment with my doc­tor rel­a­tive to my surgery. The orga­ni­za­tion has failed in all regards to have my med­ical board done on time as also failed to respond to the doc­u­ments I have sent to them.

I have been suf­fer­ing immense pain and has been unable to do my hip replace­ment surgery. I was med­ical board­ed in March 2013 and my surgery was just paid for in January 2016. But yet they blame me for their incom­pe­tence and stop­ping my salary seem to be their best option at this point. I am stressed out and in no con­di­tion men­tal­ly to do a third major surgery but if it means still get­ting a salary to pro­vide for my wife and five chil­dren I will do it even if it kills me.

On the 17,day of February 2016 I vis­it­ed doc­tor Grantel Dundas at his office for him to set a date for my surgery, he med­ical­ly exam­ined me and gave a doc­u­ment to attend the med­ical asso­ciates hos­pi­tal radi­ol­o­gy depart­ment to have x‑ray of my hip con­duct­ed on the 18^th day of February 2016 at 8:30 am. On this date I did as he instruct­ed and brought the x‑rays done to him at his office. He exam­ined them and made cer­tain rec­om­men­da­tions as it relat­ed to my hip and surgery but he did not set a surgery​.date, he gave me sick leave for three years which start­ed on February 15, 2013 and one for fifty-six days com­menc­ing on February 18, 2016. Later this same day I informed both the Human Resource and admin depart­ment of doc­tor Dundas find­ings and recommendations.

I spoke to SP. Shand and Inspector quar­ry at the Admin Department, I also gave them copy of the sick leaves. I lat­er went to the Hunts Bay Police Station where I hand­ed in both sick leaves along with the rel­e­vant appli­ca­tions to Sergeant Bryan in charge of the gen­er­al office.

On the 19^th day of February 2016 I was con­tact­ed by Dr. Dundas, he explained my med­ical options to me and con­clud­ed that my only option was still the hip replace­ment surgery, he as result set a surgery date for the 5^th day of July 2016 and I was to check in the med­ical asso­ciates hos­pi­tal on the 4^th day of July 2016 for surgery. He gave me sick leave from the 18^th of February to the 19^th day of august 2016.

I con­tact­ed the human resource branch via MR. Hamilton and informed him, I went in per­son to the admin and informed both SSP Shand and Inspector Quarry.i also informed Sgt.Bryan at the hunts bay gen­er­al office.

On the 24^th day of February 2016 I real­ized I was not paid, I made enquir­ers and found out that a,stop order on my salary was done by the same admin depart­ment who I had been in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with, I was not informed in writ­ing nor ver­bal­ly that my salary was to be stopped but it was stopped any­way. i am unable to work as a result if my injuries and I have no oth­er source of income on which to pro­vide for my family.

From the time I was shot until now I have had no con­tacts from admin depart­ment as it relates to my wel­fare, they have noth­ing for me exempt to stop my salary.I was acci­den­tal­ly shot by anoth­er police offi­cer while on duty. As a result of my injuries I have suf­fered finan­cial­ly and emo­tion­al­ly, my employ­ment options are lim­it­ed to noth­ing until I have com­plet­ed the hip replace­ment surgery. I have lost pay and advance­ment as a police Officer. I have lost oppor­tu­ni­ty to excel in oth­er areas of life. I was not coun­selled at any­time as the orga­ni­za­tion did not see it fit to look out for my wel­fare, I am stressed and on the edge and now even worse with­out a salary and no finan­cial recourse.

This state­ment is true to the best of my knowl­edge and beliefs and I make it know­ing that if it is ten­dered in evi­dence, I shall be liable to pros­e­cu­tion if I have will­ful­ly stat­ed in it any­thing I know to be false or do not believe to be true.

(Share this sto­ry and force the Government of Jamaica and the JCF to act.)