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Former Top Cop, Henry Fraser, is a ‘Special Person’“I told my officers to pay attention to the small things that people need help on, because when you need their assistance for the big things, you’ll find that you have little or no help.”By Crystal ConwayHe sat in a chair in his home office, his walking stick hooked on the back of his chair looking ahead. He turned at the sound of voices and the moment he realised he was speaking to a female reporter, Mr. Henry Fraser rose graciously from his chair, though it must have been an effort for him, to offer his greeting in a show of old world courtesy that one rarely sees these days.At 88, the former Commissioner of Police and one of the best detectives this country has ever known,Deion Sanders Falcons Jersey, has trouble seeing and moving about. Ten minutes in his company, however, will prove without a doubt that though his body has aged, his mind is as sharp as the day he joined what was then the British Guiana Police Force – some seventy years ago.Born to Guyanese parents in Suriname on December 2, 1922, Henry Alphonso Fraser grew up on Plantation Albion with his parents, two brothers and two sisters. The only qualification that he was able to obtain was his Primary School Leaving Certificate, but he describes himself as “a very ambitious fellow who was determined to succeed”.Mr. Fraser said that he enlisted in 1940 at Albion and made his way down to Georgetown, to the Constabulary School – which is now the Felix Austin Police College. There he was paraded before the Officer in Charge and his assistants. He related that if you were found to be “physically suitable” you were put in another line, alas, the young Fraser was not.He laughed as he recalled what he was told to be the reason behind his rejection: his “chest measurement” was too small and needed to be increased. The 18-year-old Fraser was told that he was too thin. He said that for the next few months he began to train seriously,Brad Richards Red Wings Jersey, making use of a friend’s exercise equipment. The very next year, he was among the 15 young men selected to become Constables. He went through his training and spent a year in the Depot.Mr. Fraser recalls that those were the war years, and in those days there was no national defence force, instead the men of the British Guiana Police Force formed the ‘frontline’.His first posting after leaving training school was to the New Amsterdam Police Station. There, Constable Fraser was assigned to walk the beat, something that he was not unfamiliar with, since during his training he was required to do the same at the Brickdam Police Station.Mr. Fraser recalled that this was his least favourite policing task, saying that in those days Georgetown was a lonely place in the wee hours of the morning and in a country where cars were few and far between, he took to memorising licence plate numbers, the numbering of houses on the streets and even the names of the people living in these homes as a way of keeping his mind active. His powers of observation would serve him well later on in his career and though he may have disliked walking the beat he noted that it had a special importance, especially in New Amsterdam.Though he joined the Force in 1941 it was not his first attempt to do so, nor was it his only choice. He said that after completing his Primary Education at Plantation Albion, he knew that he was either going into the Post Office or the Police Force. Considering his achievements in the Force,Fernando Rodney Jersey, it is no stretch of the imagination to say that he would probably have made it all the way up to Post Master General if he had chosen the other career.Mr. Fraser said that in the ‘country’ he began to move about on a bicycle to cover the long lanes and streets. He fondly remembers those to be the days of bicycle classics such as the Raleigh and Rudge, and a bicycle was a must in those parts. He explained that a police bicycle would be fitted with a pump, a tool bag with a spanner, patching kit, rubber and all the essentials to deal with any mechanical problems a rider might encounter.The ‘beat’ that he so disliked was an essential part of the life of a Rural Constable, and it later came to be a most valuable tool. On the beat he met the people of the communities, he began to establish a rapport with them until it came to the point that if one deviated from a regular beat schedule, residents would ask for that constable by name. The people of the communities were also a wealth of information on things that they had seen in their neighbourhoods – information that would be of great use as his career progressed.In 1946, he was made a detective at the age of 23, after successfully completing the detective training. Although there was a detective branch in some stations that was not the case in every station, especially the outlying ones. In such cases, every constable served as a detective.Mr. Fraser recalled one case where he was still a constable who needed to act as a detective. It occurred during his second year at Albion, where he was called out on the theft of cassava from a farmer’s plot. He stated gravely that in those days, the theft of produce was a truly serious crime and its investigation was as serious as that of a murder.He rode his cycle to the plot of land in the backdam and surveyed the damage himself. After speaking to several persons in the community, Constable Fraser took several of the broken cassava roots and went to the home of the person that he suspected had committed the crime, because of the information that the citizens had given him. There he found cut cassava roots in the man’s house. To prove the man’s innocence or guilt he simply placed cut roots with pulled roots until he had found perfect matches for all the ones that he had brought from the farm.Mr. Fraser recalls that to be one of the first real cases that he had solved and for it he received a small award. The cases that he would go on to solve in later years would be of much greater importance, but the same powers of observation and deduction would continue to serve him well.After making detective, in just four months he was transferred as an aide to the New Amsterdam Criminal Investigation Department. This first post came as a result of Mr. Fraser’s driving need to develop his abilities in all areas. He said that he had always been an avid reader and as such he had acquired a store of knowledge on criminal activities and police procedure,NBA Authentic Jerseys, as well as law. He noted that as this competence grew he was used more and more for clerical work, but eventually his raw skills as a detective would see him out in the field.Mr. Fraser spoke of the intensity with which investigations were carried out in his time. He recalled the investigation into the Wilkie Murder on Plantation Albion. Wilkie, he related, was the Deputy Manager of the Estate, which in those days was owned by Bookers. Wilkie had apparently been shot dead on the bridge across a canal between two fields on the estate. There were supposedly two assailants.Mr. Fraser said that during that investigation over 2,000 persons were interviewed. There was also a reenactment of the crime by the police that led them to recover the murder weapon and to determine the running distance to the settlement. This information was then compared to the statements of the persons interviewed to find those persons whose whereabouts during the commission of the crime could not be verified. The two suspects were caught, convicted and eventually hanged for their crime.He went on to say that in those days there were no fancy gadgets and the only aids that investigators had were cameras and the use of fingerprinting. Over the 26 years that Henry Fraser served as a detective, he earned no less than 28 awards/rewards for his work.As the years progressed Mr. Fraser got married to his lovely sweetheart Flora and they started a family. By the time he had his fifth child he was summoned to Georgetown to serve as a detective under his former boss, who had been reassigned to the city. This individual, Major Standhope, had a special affinity for his detectives in Berbice, and took them with him to get his own division up and running.Our ‘Special Person’ recalls that when he came to Georgetown his salary was some $32 a month and he needed to find a home for his wife and five children, eventually he did and they were able to join him. It was no easy task raising a family on his salary either, and soon after his sixth child came along, he realized that something needed to be done. Seeing that officers posted to the Hinterland were given a special allowance in addition to their regular salary he decided to apply for just such a position so that there could be some more money for his growing family each month.His wife however disagreed, and he says that he recalls most vividly when she told him that he shouldn’t go. He recounted that she said two things to him, the first was asking him who was going to help with the six children, the last being but a baby, and the second was even more important. She told him that what is for him would meet him right where he is.Today, Mr. Fraser is very glad that he heeded his wife’s advice. After 13 and a half years serving as a constable in the Police Force he was finally promoted to Lance Corporal in 1954.The next few years saw him going through a rapid succession of promotions and skipping several intermediary ranks. An incredible feat, too, considering that when he had joined the force the highest a local could ascend was to the position of Sergeant Major.Henry Alphonso FraserAfter his first promotion in January 1954 he was made a Sergeant, skipping the rank of Corporal. He was then sent to Essequibo where he was promoted to inspector just a year later skipping the rank of Sub-inspector. Within that year he was promoted yet again to the rank of Assistant Superintendent. He noted that at this point in time he was seconded to the Special Branch where he was promoted from Superintendent to Assistant Commissioner. It was shortly after the death of his predecessor Carl Austin that he took office as the Commissioner of Police in 1973 – a post that he would hold for four years.During his time as Commissioner, Mr. Fraser worked hard to keep the Police Force in its best shape. He demanded excellence from his men and he gave it in return.Henry Fraser is without a doubt one of the most influential figures in the field of Community Policing since it was he who got it off the ground while he served as commissioner. Having already learnt the usefulness of the citizenry in managing crime he decided to give them the opportunity to help to an even greater extent. He travelled throughout the country meeting with community groups and regional bodies recruiting volunteers and setting up the groups and their schedules.On the wall in Mr. Fraser’s office there hangs a plaque that says: “In recognition of his sterling contribution towards establishing community policing in Guyana on 11th March 1976 – Presented by the Community Policing Organization of Guyana”. That plaque, however, only made it to his office a few years ago. According to Mr. Fraser, after he left office not much was done to maintain the movement and eventually it had all but disappeared until the Presidency of Desmond Hoyte, where it experienced a brief resurgence and now today in the light of the major crime situation that plagues the country.Mr. Fraser noted that as Commissioner of Police he spent his time trying to find resources for the advancement of the force. He established and maintained an excellent rapport with the representatives of all the Foreign Embassies and Consulates here. This practice was of great benefit,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, as it was a Cuban Ambassador who arranged for him to visit Cuba for two weeks to observe the inner workings of the CDR or the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution – Cuba’s own version of Community Policing, although their mandate was not just the prevention of crime. The trip proved quite useful,NFL Jerseys Cheap China, as he learned how to mobilize the public and utilize their efforts for the best results.Henry Fraser meets Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, during her state visit to GuyanaMr. Fraser stressed that all the tidbits that you picked up from the populace became information and after you analyzed and sorted through all of it with an eye for certain details it became intelligence. And intelligence, he claimed, was the life blood of any investigation. It was always about what you knew.He believed in this so intently that one day a week, for as long as he was Police Commissioner, he would visit the major markets around the city – Kitty, Bourda, La Penitence, Stabroek – and just mingle with the people. He would walk around and meet people, talk to them, find out what was going on around the country and in the city.In 1975 Mr. Fraser also started a programme called ‘Silent Witness’ that let persons supply the police with information anonymously. His respect for the people led him to encourage his men to always be prompt in attending to reports, to always have an attitude of service and assistance. His position was that if you did not treat the citizens properly, you in essence would lose a customer. He felt that citizens who were treated well by the police when they came to make reports or when they required assistance would later become ‘friends of the force’ and offer unknown assistance at some point in the future.“I told my officers to pay attention to the small things that people need help on, because when you need their assistance for the big things, you’ll find that you have little or no help.”Commissioner Fraser (second right) is a picture of concentration as President Burnham addresses his ranksSound advice from a renowned law enforcement officer and a deserving ‘special person’.