Garnet Cossey was a school-leaver running about his St Philip district of St Catherine with no sense of purpose until one day a lightbulb went off in his head.
“You can do better than this, Garnet. Education is not common sense” said an inner voice to the youngster who had left St Mark’s Senior School at “seventh standard” (Class 7) because he could go “no further than there.”
As he explained to Easy magazine, “I had school leaving certificates but I received no secondary education because at that time my father who was a worker at a sugar factory at the time lost his job. He had four other children at school and could not support me to send me on to secondary school.
“I would run about the district. I would dive sea-eggs; I loved the sea; I had a passion for the sea so I did a lot of fishing.”
Struck by the reality of the different possibilities out there for gainful employment, he finally sat down and applied to the Barbados Fire Service, the Prison Service, for the job of conductor at the Transport Board and to be a police officer in the Barbados Police Force.
“I got invitations to do exams at all places and was successful in all” but he settled for the police force.
Now 43 years on, the man regarded as an accomplished criminal investigator is preparing to lay down the baton.
“I had never planned to go to age 65,” he told Easy and the recent stroke he suffered has all but made up his mind it is time to go.
“I can say that I quit now” said the greying man, somewhat slowed but without obvious signs of paralysis, the fervour for policing still evident as he speaks.
Cossey joined the Barbados Police Force in 1971 and was assigned to Central Police Station on patrol duties for about 18 months after leaving the police training school.
Four decades have seen him moving around the island’s police stations – Black Rock, Central and District B in Boarded Hall among them. He was exposed to different areas of policing but it was in criminal investigation that he made his mark.
Names like Inspector Jasper Watson, Inspector Arthur, Station Sergeant Bynoe, rolled off his tongue when he said of his initial District B experience: “This is where I kicked off my investigative skills. These people were really very knowledgeable and would really pull you along.”
Seeing his potential, they said: “Let us pull along this youngster. He has talent.”
Cossey joined a team of experts doing criminal investigations between the District C, Oistins and District B.
He took Easy back on a career journey of highs and lows, reflecting on those occasions when his telephone would ring in the wee hours of the morning and the voice at the other end would be his senior officer calling him out to a murder scene.
“It used to play on your nerves sometimes. You are going to investigate a murder and you don’t know who is outside watching when you step out.”
Though focused on the job at hand, his thoughts occasionally wandered back to his home and the safety of his young family.
He also talked about those occasions when the adrenalin rushed as he was on a case – his primary concern always: solving the crime.
“There was a time when at Oistins we were getting a vast amount of crime . . . crime every day, crime every night, break-ins . . .”
He related: “One night myself and **** were on patrol. I drove him from 6 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.”
Cossey’s partner had barely taken over the driving after the two had taken a brief break when an alert Cossey sitting in the passenger seat spotted a restaurant break-in in progress. Three perpetrators “were inside loaded up”.
The arrest the two police officers made assisted with the clearing up of about 150 outstanding cases and Cossey counts his fortune to have been able to work with crime sleuths who were at the top of their game.
“It is just keen observation. You have to develop good detective skills,” he said.
“When I was at District C, we were getting a lot of break-in up there in the 1980s. We could not get these crimes solved. One morning coming from town I saw a man riding coming down on a bicycle with his head down. He looked suspicious.”
On a hunch Cossey and his partner stopped the cyclist and requested a search. In his pockets they found jewellery which later turned out had been stolen from several houses in a St Philip neighbourhood. Many a relieved householder responded to the police’s call to come to the station to identify the jewellery they had reported stolen in 18 break-ins that day.
There were also the 16 murders solved out of 17 committed between January and December of 2002 and he prides himself on being part of the successful investigating team.
“I was given a lot of awards throughout my time policing,” Cossey said, showing them all off as proof – ten commendations for meritorious service between 1984 and 1986, and the Barbados Service Star awarded by Government in the 2013 Independence National Honours and Awards.
Cossey’s many awards recognise four decades of commitment to the Royal Barbados Police Force.
“When I first went in the [police] force, policing was like one-way traffic. You worked six to ten in the morning, go back and work six to ten in the evening. Sometimes when you finish you can’t get home because the bus finished running and you have to sleep in the station. Then you have to get up to start the six o’ clock shift in the morning again.”
He recognised “policing has become more dangerous”, far from the days when he patrolled the deserted Bridgetown streets alone at night, when there were only about ten police officers covering all the Bridgetown beats.
“Crime was not as hectic as it is now. In those days you would get about a hundred and something cases a year, now you can get over 600 cases of crime reported at one station per year and this would include serious crime [and] petty crime. I feel crime now has come from the upbringing of the young generation.”
He regrets the disappearing politeness in children once insisted upon by parents and the restrictions imposed on teachers in administering corporal punishment.
“At school a child should be corrected. Don’t brutalise people’s children, but the teacher should be able to flog when children do something wrong.”
The father of four had this advice for parents: “Don’t take the children’s word for it. Check with the person they say they got the item from, and make sure it is not stolen.
“Never mind the shame; take the child to return the item if you know it has been stolen.”
