News
February 09 2026
Woman of steel
5
min read
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Superintendent Oberlene Smith-Whyte giving an address.
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Oberlene Smith-Whyte during a bodybuilding competition.
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Trainee Oberlene Smith-Whyte in training at Jamaica Police Academy.
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United Nations Peacekeeper Oberlene Smith Whyte leading a team on gender-based violence (female mutilation) sensitisation in Sudan.
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Oberlene Smith-Whyte, author of ‘Porridge and Power; Raising Bold, Brilliant & Brawta Children in a Jamaican Home’, at the launch on January 3 at the Police Officers’ Club in St Andrew.
At the young age of 23, Oberlene Smith-Whyte’s world as she knew it shattered. Her husband, Errol Whyte, was shot and killed along with then member of Parliament Roy McGann, to whom he was assigned as close protection officer, both victims of a bloody 1980 general election campaign. His brutal death left Smith-Whyte, who was also a cop, with a young son and pregnant with her daughter. Some may have quit the police force, but not Smith-Whyte, who in her own words views danger, retroactively.
