Constable Brown Witter helping the less fortunate

CONSTABLE ROXANNE Brown Witter of the Greater Portmore Police Station is blending her police work with charity. She has launched a foundation to empower less fortunate children and adults by mobilising support to provide them with essential resources.

Called ‘Once A Man, Twice A Child’, the foundation aims to help those who are unable to help themselves.

Its-mission is to create a supportive and nurturing environment where individuals at every stage of life, from childhood to the aged, can thrive and find purpose through community, care, compassion, partnership and meaningful engagements.

Constable Brown Witter said that she was driven to establish the foundation after seeing the plight of an elderly gentlemen, while working in the St Catherine South Police Division during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022.

At the time, she was stationed at the Old Harbour Police Station, and she was tasked to assist with the distribution of basic food items to residents.

She said, “My heart cried,” after meeting the elderly man and hearing of his needs.

“I determined then to help in any way that I could, and I assisted with food items, medication, providing sanitary napkins, adult pampers, and any other assistance that I could provide,” Constable Brown Witter shared.

The devout Christian who is pursuing pastoral studies, noted that she has always reached out to the less fortunate, but noted that it was “becoming too heavy,” to continue to provide from her own personal resources.

Hence, the birth of the foundation, to galvanise a community of support for those in need.

“I don’t like seeing children being abused. I don’t like seeing the elderly not being able to take care of themselves, and don’t have someone in their corner to assist them. So, I decided to launch the foundation and the idea is that we need to give back,” she said.

Constable Brown Witter’s charity works fit perfectly with her job as a police officer, which is to serve, protect and reassure citizens.

One of two training officers at the Greater Portmore Police Station, she said that she decided to join the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) after over 20 years in teaching.

“I have always wanted to become a police officer; that was my main thing,” she said, noting that her parents did not support her ambition.

Once she made the decision to join the force, she submitted her application but got no response.

“I just got fed up and went to the National Police College of Jamaica, at the recruiting centre, and asked about my application. They thought I was a police officer and asked which formation I was with. I answered, ‘if you give me a desk and a chair, I will serve here’,” she recalled with laughter.

“I was the oldest person in training at the time and I had to prove that I could do it. I made it to the end. I was successful and since then I have been placed in St Catherine South. I have worked at several stations in the division, in several capacities and in various leadership posts,” she said..

Constable Brown Witter, who facilitates training for probationers and new recruits assigned to the division, said it is her duty to take them “through the rigours of policing”.

She also does refresher training for more established personnel.

“With the whole transformation of the JCF, things are changing and moving rapidly, so, you have to get the older members up to par and again, that falls in the training office where I sit, ” she noted.

The almost seven-year veteran of the JCF loves her job and still recalls her “first major case” in the court, which resulted in a prison sentence of 18 and a half years for an offender.

“As a young rookie cop at that time, everybody was asking, ‘how you manage to get a big case like that?’ she said.

“That was my first time stepping into the courthouse, going to Supreme Court and the Gun Court, and then, you know, while the experience was terrifying at some point, I pulled through,” the Constable shared.

She asserted that to be a successful police officer, one must be “flexible, be able to make wise choices, be open to change, and try and learn as much as you can.”

She noted that due to the demands of the job, persons will not always get to spend the important holidays with family, and so, they should cherish every moment with friends and loved ones.

“So, the birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s and all those things, you don’t always have a chance to celebrate with them, but what you have to do, you have to create your own schedule. Ensure that you make lasting relationships,” she advised.

Constable Brown Witter, who is the biological mother of two girls, said she has had the “awesome privilege” of impacting the lives of seven additional children, by taking them into her home, and “raising them as my own”.

JIS