Beacon of the day | Police officer, who once was a school teacher, honoured in Linstead

December 1, 2020 0 By Horace Mills

Corporal Sharon Gordon, who has been serving her country through the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) for 22 years, is a teacher at heart.

She initially taught at Fort George Primary School in St. Ann for a year, and at Redwood Primary in St. Catherine for almost 10 years.

The graduate of Mico College eventually left the school system and joined the JCF.

Teaching followed her.

“Apart from being a trained teacher, in the JCF I did many courses to include trainer of trainer and divisional training sub-officer,” she told The Beacon. “I have moulded a lot of police women who are doing well.”

Corporal Gordon, who stated that her childhood dream was to become a chartered accountant or a lawyer, has spent 16 years helping to train JCF recruits.

She worked at the National Police College of Jamaica (NPCJ) in St. Catherine, at Eco Village where she was trained, and at the NPCJ Tranquility Bay wing in St Elizabeth.

She is now based at the divisional training section at Spanish Town Police Station.

Corporal Gordon told The Beacon that, previously, she also served at the Linstead and Bog Walk Police Stations in St. Catherine. For a relatively short time, she headed Green Acres Police Station as well as Shady Grove Police Station in Lluidas Vale.

On November 26, Corporal Gordon received an award in Linstead, where she now resides.

The Linstead Community Development Committee (Linstead CDC) honoured the law enforcer, along with nine other people and organizations, for stellar contribution to the Committee and to the wider community of Linstead.

The event, dubbed the 21st Anniversary Youth and Community Awards Ceremony, took place at Linstead Community Resource Centre.

“I feel appreciated; I feel respected; I feel so elated,” Corporal Gordon, a former Scout leader, told The Beacon. “It is a plus for the JCF to know that there are persons like us out there who are reaching out to the community.”

Corporal Gordon received the award at a time when the JCF was celebrating Police Week, and when the nation was observing Community Month.

She explained that, through her ties with Linstead CDC, she was able to find help for a number of needy people in the community.

Asked how she eventually would like to be remembered, she said: “I want to be remembered as a person who listens to persons, who mek mi arrest and is still respected although I carry people before the law. I want to be seen as a person who reached out to the needy and persons who others would ignore.”

Corporal Gordon, who has five siblings, two adult sons and a daughter, is no stranger to benevolence.

She recalled that, after graduating from secondary school, she became the main caregiver for her late parents.

She grew up in the rural community of Blackstonage in St. Ann – not far from Guy’s Hill.

“That was country life,” Corporal Gordon noted, laughing.

“I had to carry banana, travel far for water, [and] cook on wood fire. It was the community that grew us; the village grew us. I grew up in a very lonely place, but I learnt to be disciplined and focused.”

Corporal Gordon added that she was athletic and ‘very bright in class’ when she attended St. Georges All Age School and Dinthill Technical High.

In fact, she was a member of Dinthill’s 4X100 relay team that won a gold medal at ‘Champs’, which is the island’s biggest and the most popular athletics competition. The law enforcer also won several athletics competitions while serving in the JCF.

She, in the meantime, encouraged police officers to make integrity their hallmark.

“Be focused, go by the police mission statement, be ethical and honest and have integrity,” she further advised. “This is a good job where persons can elevate themselves, but they have to be disciplined.”


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