-Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

IMAGINE seeing the things you use to do well and things you have always dreamt of doing but cannot participate because you are confined to a wheelchair.

Detective Corporal Richard Bartley says it is not an easy feeling.

Paralysed from the waist down, the 36-year-old Det. Cpl. Bartley is one of a handful of disabled police officers in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). Despite his disability, the policeman says he has not given up hope on doing things he once enjoyed.

He exercises daily with a view of walking again and says he also prays everyday and night for deliverance. But while he looks forward to the day when he may be able to walk again, Det. Cpl. Bartley cannot help believing he would have no need for a wheelchair if the Jamaican government had honoured its obligation to pay for physiotherapy overseas.

Donning plain clothes with his service piston peeping from his waistband and a cigarette box protruding from his breast pocket, the detective tells his story from the guardroom of the Seaforth Police Station in St. Thomas.

Seaforth is Det. Bartley's hometown. Prior to his injury he worked out of the Castle station in Portland. When he was not on operational police work there was almost a certainty that one could find him on a football field. All that changed on Easter Sunday, April 12, 1998.

last time standing

Hurried along by the sub officer in charge, who had insisted that he attend the police church service, Cpl. Bartley changed into his police uniform and was ready for church. Little did he know that his hurried dressing that morning was the last time he would stand up and pull on his trousers.

Minutes after leaving the police station for church in a private motor veichle driven by his supervisor, fate met them on the road. Bartley said the sub officer swerved to avoid a pothole along the Black Rock main road, lost control of the motor car, and hit a tree which caused the vehicle to overturn and roll down a Portland hill.

"...The car rolled down the hill and when it came to a stop the sergeant said 'Bartley yuh all right?" relates Bartley, a 17-year veteran of the JCF.

Immediately after the accident the policeman said he felt no pain despite being aware that he had hurt his back in the crash. The policeman noticed the area below his navel to be cold but did not even suspect he was just made disabled.

Rushed to the Port Antonio hospital by passers-by and then airlifted to the Kingston Public hospital (KPH) in a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) aircraft, the detective corporal underwent emergency surgery. The aim was to effect repair works to his spine. He spent two weeks at the KPH during which time pain set in; he even begged God to take his life. He said the pain in his back was unbearable but he wanted to walk again.

The Mona Rehabilitation Centre was to be his home for the next 10 weeks. But he got no walking lessons and subsequently went to the United States of America to see if first world treatment could help.

By June of 1998 he was at the Burke Rehabilitation Centre in Bronx, New York where Christopher Reeves (who acted as Superman on screen), was a patient. The doctors there expected him to walk out of the Centre in braces, which he wore for a time , but later discarded.

While there Det. Cpl. Bartley worked extra hard at exercising daily and the idea of walking again was so real. But with money to pay for his therapy not being sent to Burke by the Jamaican government, this dream became comparable with the horizon.

"They have one-hour sessions and when you go to class, nearly half-hour of your time is spent in an office, people asking about their money.

"And even when I call the Ministry of National Security, the Police Federation and the Commissioner's Office, no help (was forthcoming)," the policeman said.

"And when mi look an see how far mi reach and have to stop," the detective said in a fading voice, while shaking his head.

too late

Forced to return from the Bronx in March of 1999, Det. Cpl. Bartley said it was not until September of that year the Ministry of National Security called to say they had sent money. This, however, was too late.

Despite the less than favourable treatment in the aftermath of his injury, Det. Cpl. Bartley was adamant about returning to police duty. He secured a transfer from Portland to St. Thomas which ended a three and a half-year hiatus from active force duty.

The Seaforth station was to be his new base but the station was not designed for a wheelchair person to enter by himself. Fuelled by the desire to return to work, Det.Cpl. Bartley says he dipped into his pocket and paid for the construction of a ramp, monies for which he was later reimbursed.

Now head of the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) in Seaforth, Det. Cpl. Bartley, while not being able to play football anymore or make himself active on the front line, has refused to be a cripple. He uses his community policing methods as one bridge that links the police to citizens in Seaforth and its environs.

Head of the Seaforth police Inspector Patrick Bennett hails the disabled cop as a dedicated worker.

"He never uses his conditions as an excuse not to be at work. He is hardworking despite his limited ability to move and can always be relied on," Inspector Bennett said. Colleague Cpl. Dave Brown share the inspector's sentiment and has used the word active to describe Det. Cpl. Bartley, who still yearns for deliverance.

"Up to this day no doctor has told me that I won't be able to walk again. I believe I will be able to and am working at it and when that day comes, it will be the man upstairs that I will thank," Det. Cpl. Bartley says.

Detective Corporal Richard Bartley of the Seaforth Police Station in St. Thomas is confined to a wheelchair following a 1998 motor vehicle accident.

" ... The car rolled down the hill and when it came to a stop the sergeant said 'Barkley yuh all right?" relates Bartley, a 17-year veteran of the JCF says.