Lluidas Vale Honours Police Officer For Good Service

Constable Alvin Bryan

There is perhaps no greater feeling of pride and joy than that which comes from being honoured by the people that one serves.

“It is a great feeling to be appreciated in these times,” said Constable Alvin Bryan, a gunshot victim survivor who works at Shady Grove Police Station in Lluidas Vale, St Catherine.

The Kiwanis Club Royale Lluidas Vale honoured the law enforcer during an awards ceremony on Sunday (July 17) at Lluidas Vale Primary School.

An award was also presented to the Jamaica Beacon media entity, founded by journalist Horace Mills.

According to the Kiwanis Club Royale Lluidas Vale, headed by Ana-Kay Clarke, the awards are for “outstanding service to the Lluidas Vale community”.

Constable Bryan has been serving at Lluidas Vale since 2007.

“Overall, the community is alright,” he said, adding that he has been made to feel at home in the vastly rural area. “I am a part of that community now; I know almost everybody there by name.”

Constable Bryan, a native of Waterhouse in Kingston, previously did relatively short stints at Spanish Town Police Station as well as Glengoffe Police Station.

He told The Beacon that he has no regret becoming a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) although his relatives initially were apprehensive about him becoming a cop, considering Jamaica’s high crime rate.

“I love the police force because I like to assist people,” Constable Bryan further explained. “If I say I regret joining the force, I would be ungrateful [considering] all the achievements it has given to me. I own a home, a car and so on.”

Asked how he would eventually like to be remembered, Constable Bryan commented: “Remember me just as a person who is always there to assist people.”

Despite his propensity for helping others, Constable Bryan has not always been on the receiving end of such courtesy.

In 2009, he, after leaving work in Lluidas Vale, was shot in the nearby community of Ewarton by a group of robbers dressed like police officers.

He recalled that a bullet went through his lungs and bullets also grazed his chest and one of his hands. One of three females who were in the vehicle driven by Constable Bryan was also shot and wounded. The car ended up in a precipice.

Constable Bryan spent about a week recuperating at the St Elizabeth-based convalescent home for members of the JCF.

Still happy to be alive and well enough to serve his country, the officer advised his colleagues to always carry out their duties with dignity and passion. “Hold up your heads and avoid corruption because it is easy to be corrupted in the force. Just be smart and hold your heads up.”

During the awards ceremony, Inspector Simone Fyffe, who has been head of the Shady Grove Police Station since April, spoke highly of her colleague.

“Constable Bryan has been a staple here in Lluidas Vale… He is a very humble young man. He is very quiet, but he is a serious police officer and he is always clean and neat in his appearance whether at work or not,” she told the gathering.

Inspector Fyffe added: “You never receive a report of any misconduct or anything adverse about Constable Bryan [at the divisional headquarters]. And since my time here in Lluidas Vale, I have not heard one bad report about him. He is really an example to his juniors and to the community as well. I do believe that he does justice to the banner and the label Jamaica Constabulary Force.”

Constable Bryan also received commendation from Andy Smith, President of the Lluidas Vale Citizens Association, which was founded about three years ago.

“He is always humble and he listens,” Smith said while recounting some instances in which he has had to seek the officer’s intervention.

He added that other residents also hold Constable Bryan in high esteem. “From what they told me, he is a very understanding person and he splits justice.”

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