From Claremont through tribulations and sacrifices to being in charge of St Ann police
Not many mothers going off to work say to their children, ‘I may not come home today but I love you and you know what to do.” But Yvonne Martin-Daley did that often. And it was not because she was paranoid. Sometimes the danger of not coming home became much more real, such as when she was sub-officer in command at the Spanish Town Police Station in 1998 and the violence there was at its highest.In sending off her two children to school, she would tell them the realities of her work and that she might not come home that night. Yet she did return every night, though late sometimes and though it meant she had to get household help for them. At other times, on other assignments stationed well away from home, she often didn’t see her children until every other week and homework help with her children meant using the telephone.This policewoman has withstood those anxious days and years, overcome her own difficulties in the Force, completed her Bachelors and Masters Degrees, grown her children, committed her life to God and now heads the Police Force in St Ann, the parish where she was born.It has been a long road from Claremont in St Ann to being the top cop in the parish of her birth. It has been a journey of over 30 years from when she joined the Force. ‘I actually went in for maybe five years. It’s gone over thirty,” Senior Superintendent Yvonne Martin-Daley told The Times.As a child coming from very humble beginnings, she wanted more for herself and wanted to excel. She had six siblings, her father worked as a farmer and her mother as a housewife. Things were tough. “I made a choice. Things don’t come to you by chance. I refused to live a life of lack when there is so much to be gained,” she stated. And there began her mantra, “It’s choice, not chance that will determine my destiny.”She read voraciously, as much to escape to others worlds with less poverty and a brighter outlook as just to educate herself. From her days at Ferncourt High School, Claremont where she walked to school, Yvonne Martin decided she wanted to become an Immigration officer. At the time she did not know what it involved and her father helped her to do the research and found out she had first to enter the Force. She applied but was not called until three years later.
START OF NEW LIFE
In the meantime she worked at the Land Authority office (now RADA) in Claremont, still close to home.When she was finally accepted and went into training school there were just over 105 recruits, 25 of them being female.She said she was always driven by a desire to succeed. “Something said, ‘you cannot fail’.” Even when in training, stretched by rigorous exercise she kept saying she had to succeed. “Even when doing the morning runs over hills and valleys and I felt like my chest was going to burst, I said I have to press on.” That she did and was always in the top five in her batch and graduated top of her batch achieving the award Best at Laws.She found a new side of herself at training school – athletics talent. She got involved in track and field and netball and even represented the police in an athletics meet against the Army. At the stadium in 1984 while running the 800 metres she said she felt she was going to drop but when she heard the voices in the stands shouting, ‘Run, Yvonne, run!” she got new energy and came in second. She also represented the police at the national level in netball.After training school, her first placement in 1984 was at Kingston Central in the heart of the capital city. It was a massive change from the rural community of Claremont to the busy streets of Kingston. She laughs about her first day going to work and how an elderly woman helped her cross the heavily trafficked road at East Queen Street. She didn’t stay there long and three years later she was in the Immigration department, based at 230 Spanish Town Road and at the Norman Manley International airport, doing what had drawn her to the Force in the first place. “I did my job with pride, commitment and loyalty. Immigration is the face of the nation, the interface between the outside world and Jamaica and whoever works there must demonstrate those traits,” she said. “I liked what I did. But you didn’t get a chance to do much more after a while…I wasn’t getting what I thought I would.”
MOVING UP
By 1996 she applied for and was accepted into the Accelerated Promotion Programme in the Force. She was the only female in the group of 18. The programme led to then Sergeant Martin-Daley being posted to Wakefield in Trelawny. Rural even more than Claremont but now she had responsibilities for a team and for serving the communities around that Trelawny town. She said she learnt all aspects of the work, from traffic, investigation, community policing, administration, guard room duties… everything. Her knowledge of and participation in sport also helped her there. The programme involved also six-month training at the University of Technology (UTECH).The Wakefield placement meant more challenges for her then young family, as by then she had been divorced. Often contact was on the phone and over it she helped her son with his school work. Her colleagues would help too.Graduating from the programme in 1998 she was placed at Spanish Town as sub-officer in charge, with colleague Reneto Adams as her Officer. That meant many operations to several tough, depressed communities or known volatile areas. She wore denim and was prepared and armed like the men and women she led on those operations. SSP Martin-Daley says she was never fearful and always went out with a team. She didn’t ask for special favours and only once can she remember a male member of the team suggesting she should stay back as this was too tough for women.She was never interested in showing the bad cop or tough cop image. “I want to be fair, firm and respectful of people and their rights. But those who take the offensive against the citizens and or the police must be prepared for effective police action.”After six months at Spanish Town “which really felt like six years,’ she said laughing, she went on to the Training Branch where she worked in all the training faculties as administrative, recruitment and project officer from 1999 to 2012. During this time she continued expanding her education, running her family, now as a single mom, and carrying her duties.
CONVERSION
“As an individual I have to demonstrate many and varying personas at varying times, it’s sometimes a cop, sometimes a mom, sometimes a friend or a church sister,” she said. She has had to overcome personal and professional obstacles too and says she always learns from them. Following an accident in Portmore from which she might have died, in 2004, someone suggested that she was lucky to be alive and she made a decision the following morning just to go to church. She didn’t know exactly which church she was going to and told the taxi driver just to drop her at church. It was the Emmanuel Apostolic Church Portmore and “when I went in it’s like the preacher was talking to me. I felt the tears running down my face.”She doesn’t believe that her conviction as a Christian interferes with her work as a police officer. “Peter carried a sword, remember.” The SSP says she is guided by the principles of respect and being fair and firm.SSP Yvonne Martin-Daley says she doesn’t worry as she has overcome much and God is on her side. It is that faith and what she said were the cold hard facts that helped her to be vindicated following her interdiction in a fatal traffic accident in St Catherine in 2008. It is this faith with which she encourages her members daily, Psalm 91 being her guide.After a brief stay at the Area 2 Police Headquarters at Tower Isle in St Mary, and in the Portland Division the Superintendent took charge of St Ann and its 11 stations plus other units like Traffic, Intelligence Unit, CIB, Operational Teams, Community and Security Branch and the ISCF formations. In this large parish, she has been well received and many demands made of her to attend a host of functions. It’s a challenging but highly exciting task. Last year on her birthday (December 15) she found herself attending an Ocho Rios Police Youth Club awards banquet. “I am most motivated and happy when a lot of positive things are happening. Many positive things are happening in St Ann,” she says. “I lead a team of men and women who work hard, are focused and willing to do effective policing…all we require is the continued support of the citizenry, and get it we will,” she states emphatically.She says the Force has been good to her and has afforded her the opportunity to gain academic and professional acumen. She has a BSc in Human Resource Management and an MSc from UWI in National Security and Strategic Studies.She knows the challenges of policing and said the last two months have been encouraging in the crime fight in St Ann She keeps her style of being fair, respectful yet firm. She is looking forward to more time with her three grandchildren but for now she is leading from the front in St Ann and her respect is winning many hearts and minds.
As to whether she would encourage young women to enter the force, SSP Martin-Daley said an enthusiastic and firm yes. “I do encourage it every day. I tell people that career readiness is the key to a successful career in the force, first persons have to know what they want to do, do an assessment of themselves to determine their attributes and traits, do a research on the force to know what the force requires and offers and then determine if your goals align with those of the Force. All you want you can achieve them there.”
“Police work is not a bed of roses. I have never asked for any favours but God has always open doors for me.” She said that for woman and men entering the Force, they would have to remember that it’s the Jamaica Constabulary Force not the Kingston or St Catherine Force and consequently members can be placed anywhere within Jamaica and even abroad if required, always remembering the Motto, ‘Wherever I shall serve”. The challenge is to ensure balance in order to keep your life and family together.
