At the age of 16, RCIPS Air Operations Commander Steve Fitzgerald began his policing career and, now, after 49 years of service, he will be hanging up his hat this July.
“It’s a big move, obviously,” he told the Compass. “I’ve been here quite a long time. I’ve been involved in air operations for 26 years across the world, and policing since I was 16. I reach 65 in July and that’s the right time to move on and hand over the reins.”
Fitzgerald’s successor is the unit’s deputy inspector Neil Mohammed. They worked together on the formation of the Cayman Islands police helicopter unit 12 years ago.
From Blackpool to Cayman
Fitzgerald, originally from Blackpool, Lancashire, UK, began his career with a police cadet course at the age 16, in 1973, before becoming a police constable.
He worked with the Lancashire Constabulary until 1996, when he joined the Lancashire Police Air Support Unit as a unit executive officer, where he worked for almost 10 years. He also worked with the Abu Dhabi police as a consultant advisor from 2007 to 2009 on an AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter project.
Fitzgerald got an opportunity to come to the Cayman Islands 12 years ago to help start up the Air Ops unit.
He says of his almost five full decades in the police service, “It is definitely a passion for me. I’m not going to say July is going to be easy, but the time’s right and the time’s come,” he said.
He says the unit has come a long way from those initial days.
“I think the Cayman Islands should be proud of where it (the unit) is today. I came in initially to solve a problem because the aircraft couldn’t come into service. We had to do quite a lot of work at the time in the lead up. It took 14 months to bring it onto island, and from that point on, we always took the attitude ‘we’ll walk before we run’,” he said.
Career of many memories
Over his 49-year career, Fitzgerald has worked on many cases and witnessed incidents that have stayed with him from the loss of boaters here in the Cayman Islands to the disaster at Morecambe Bay, in which 23 Chinese cockle pickers lost their lives at sea in 2004.
“I was the UK Lancashire Air Support Commander at the time. Around midnight I got a call that the crews were deploying to a sea incident and would need cover back at base. Through the night, I watched my crews and the RAF crews coming in to refuel and going back out. My crew had already found the only person alive, the only beacon out of the event,” he said in an emailed statement.
When daylight came, he said, the crews had changed, and the exhausted night crew were forced to go home.
“The task of body location and recovery affected the whole unit… I had friends who worked on the inquiry for months after. All these years later, this incident reinforced my respect and fear for the power of the sea, and [that is] no less here in the Cayman Islands,” he said.
Fitzgerald also recounted the impact of losing three of his colleagues in 1983 in a rescue attempt after a man was washed out to sea.
“I attended a sea incident in Blackpool (5 January 1983) … I lost three shift colleagues and friends, who all drowned. I was the second surviving officer on scene, and when they talk about mental health and wellness, that has to be at the top. It was not fashionable then to have PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], which I recognised in my immediate behaviours. It took me weeks, and I never really fully recovered to leave that behind, but it shaped me as a team leader and the compassion I have for the teams I work with,” he said in a written statement.
He added, “I am very fortunate that I went home that day and get to retire.”
Another special memory, he said, was when the crew met Prince Charles on his visit here in March 2019.
“The day we flew him, we were the only police helicopter to have ever achieved Royal Flight approval,” he said.
Air Ops the envy of the region
Fitzgerald said Cayman should be proud of the unit’s journey.
“We’ve been building what is probably one of the most exceptional air operations units in the world, not just the Caribbean, when you look at where we are today, and that’s what I’m hopefully handing over to Neil and the team as they carry on,” he said.
Currently, the unit has two H145 helicopters, the most advanced in the region, and soon the unit will have its first Caymanian helicopter pilot, Darren McLean, in the cockpit – a source of pride for Fitzgerald.
“It’s taken us a long time to get Darren on a pathway that we wanted to get him on and it was important to be able to encourage anybody that has the ambition. Because of the limitations that they have here, we explored a number of areas and we’re fortunate that we came up with this out-of-the-box solution… to get him to accumulate his hours,” he said.
McLean has left for Trinidad for what will be his final year of training, after which he will return as a first officer.
“He’ll have to go through a structure when he comes back… to be able to achieve his full function ability to crew the helicopter. But that’s in the interest of his ability and safety. He is a very, very good pilot, that’s all the feedback we’re getting… I have no doubts about that. He will be here for a long career,” he said proudly.
Although the unit is a “gas guzzler”, as is the case with any aviation operation, Fitzgerald said its value is immeasurable given its capacity in search-and-rescue, medical evacuation and relief work.
“We’ve got to realise that we are the Airforce. We are the support for the Regiment, we are the support for the Coast Guard, and we are major support and part of the police service. There is no other option if we’re not here. Somebody else doesn’t come in and support us. So that’s why we need the resilience of the two [helicopters],” he said.
Though it will be a bittersweet departure from the unit for Fitzgerald, he believes the framework is in place for the unit to flourish, long after he has left.
“I think we have set a very, very high standard, a very high bar, which is replicated in our civil aviation authority audits… We are the standard that other people are judged against. We don’t sit back on that, but it’s there to be carried forward and develop,” Fitzgerald said.
Police Commissioner Derek Byrne expressed his gratitude to Fitzgerald for his “many years of dedicated and loyal service to the RCIPS”.
“He has been instrumental in the creation and continued development of the RCIPS Air Operations Unit, working closely with our service providers and CAACI to ensure that we maintain the highest professional and operational standards,” Byrne said in a statement to the Compass.
“Although I am sad to see him go, I know that the AOU is in good hands with Inspector Neil Mohammed who has trained under Steve’s mentorship for the past number of years, who will be taking over as Unit Head. I wish Steve all the best in his future endeavours, and hope he enjoys his well-earned retirement,” he added.
Steve Fitzgerald’s career timeline
1973-76: Police cadet
1976-1983: Police Constable, response and traffic control
1983-1995: Police sergeant
1983-85: Blackpool shift response
1985-87: Traffic patrol supervisor
1986-95: Police Search Advisor (Explosives threat)
1988-91: Plain Clothes Vice Unit
1991-93: Licensing Unit and enforcement (for the biggest holiday resort in Europe)
1994: Blackpool Drugs Unit
1995: Inspector, shift commander, Blackpool
1996-2006: Air Operations Commander, Lancashire UK Air Support (helicopter unit)
2004-09: National project manager UK Home Office for all Air Units digital communications systems (31 aircraft)
2008-09: Specialist air operations Abu Dhabi Police, UAE
2009-10: Police Air Operations advisor, Cayman Islands
2010-22: Unit Commander, RCIPS Air Operations Unit
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