Rosie McDonald-Barker bids JCF goodbye

Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

HER COLLEAGUES say she was the first female officer charged with the responsibility of heading a prime minister's security detail since the inception of the Protective Service Division within the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

After more than three decades in the JCF, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rosie McDonald-Barker, who was the bodyguard of former Prime Minister, Michael Manley, has retired.

"It has been a tremendous journey, but my hallmark is the challenges I experienced while introducing community policing in sections of the St Andrew North Police Division," said the 37-year veteran of the JCF.

McDonald-Barker was making reference to the period since 1994 when she was transferred from the Protective Service Division and immediately took up the challenge of restoring peace and tranquility to the volatile communities of Grants Pen and Red Hills Road, St Andrew.

She singled out an incident which took place on Red Hills Road in April 1998 in which Marlon Fyne was killed in a controversial shooting by the police. Police reports said he was killed during a shoot-out and an illegal firearm seized, but residents claimed he was killed in cold blood.

influential

Fyne's girlfriend, Lisa Gifford, was three months pregnant at the time of his death. SSP McDonald-Barker, who visited the scene, was touched by the emotions of the pregnant woman and later opted to be the child's godmother.

"It was not easy, because at first the mother did not want to speak with me because of the fact that it was the police who had killed her baby-father. In spite of this, I visited her every morning, until she began talking to me," commented McDonald-Barker, whose gesture to become the child's godmother created a bond between them which has lasted since then.

Today, she is called Auntie Rosie by the child, Malika Fyne, who is now 12 years old.

The retired senior officer said she was influential in bringing rival factions together in Grants Pen.

"I remember at one stage, persons from Morgan Lane who had children living on the other side could not visit them because of the violence, while others had to use back roads and longer routes to have access to public transportation. It pained my heart and I knew I had to do something," the former intelligence officer said.

Her depth of policing took her from the Special Branch, to the Protective Service, and the St Andrew North, St Andrew Central and Motorised Police divisions.

But the high point of her career was while she was at the Protective Service where she got the opportunity to be the bodyguard of the late former prime minister Manley Manley and his family. She carried out this function for 20 years. Apart from travelling the world with the former PM, the retired SSP said one of her memorable moments was in 1994.

"It was when I saw apartheid crumble after Nelson Mandela was unanimously elected president by the National Assembly. I was there with Mr Manley," McDonald-Barker said with pride.

Although a firm believer in community policing, the retired senior officer said she is not against tough policing because she believes that there is a place for it.

Born in the quiet farming village of Sanguinettie, Clarendon, her first love was to join the police force when she left school or pursue a career in nursing.

She sat the police exam and was called in November 1972. At the time, she was employed to the Ministry of Education, marking exam papers.

glenroy.sinclair@gleanerjm.com