NEW RUC DRUG SQUAD BOSS UPBEAT ON BEATING SCOURGE
OF PRESENT GENERATION

'The Drugs Squad Is A Challenge And I've A Lot To Learn'

DETECTIVE Superintendent Judith Gillespie has become used to
confronting the sort of grim realities which are confined to most
parents' worst nightmares.

For more than two years, as head of the RUC's Child Abuse and Rape
Enquiry teams, she came face to face with the shattered lives of
youngsters who fell victim to paedophiles.

Now the 45-year-old has now taken control of the Drugs Squad and sees
at first hand the threat posed to our young folk by the pushers.

And as the mother of two children she cannot help shuddering at some
of things she has seen and heard. Det Supt Gillespie said: "If you ask
any parent what are their main concerns, the first is likely to be
drugs and the second will be child abuse.

"When you have children of your own, the CARE team is a real
eye-opener and tends to affect the way you think. You can very
suspicious of people's motives, but you take some comfort from the
point of view that these are rare incidents.

"The vast majority of children are loved for and cared for and looked
after very well. In policing in general, you tend to come into contact
with the more difficult members of society, the ones with criminal or
anti-social problems.

"You tend to become cynical but you have to remind youself that this
is a small proportion of society - the vast majority of people are
well-meaning."

Det Supt Gillespie's hard-won experience in such gruelling
circumstances has helped establish her as one of four female
superintendents in the RUC and the first to hold the rank within the
CID. She is seen as one of the most talented officers in the force and
is tipped by many to progress even higher through the ranks.

Det Supt Gillespie accepts that her promotion is a sign of changing
attitudes towards women in the RUC: "There is no doubt that the RUC
has improved in light years from when I joined in 1982. We now have an
equal opportunities unit and grievance procedures for sexual
harassment and there is an acceptance on the part of everyone that we
have as much capability and as much right to promotion as men.

"Promotion and selection are much more on merit than they ever were.
It will take a long time to redress the imbalance but we are making
great strides."

Det Supt Gillespie's career began when she joined the force at 18 in
1982 and was stationed at York Road. Spells in the Traffic Branch and
as a staff officer at RUC headquarters were followed by a posting to
Newtownards as an inspector.

It was there that she took on a very public profile as a presenter on
the UTV's Crimecall - one which still lingers in certain memories .
She laughed: "It can be a little uncomfortable - when I'm introduced
to people and they say: 'Don't I know you from somewhere ?'"

There could scarcely have been a sharper contrast with her next role,
as head of the CARE team, which handles cases of child abuse and sex
attacks.

In October, she took control of the Drugs Squad at a time of
unprecedented concern about the problem. There was cause for
celebration last week, when Drugs Squad officers seized pounds 3
million worth of Ecstasy - the most valuable haul ever uncovered by
the RUC.

Said Det Supt Gillespie: "I'm really enjoying my work at the Drugs Squad -
it's a real challenge and I have a lot to learn, but I have a terrific
staff who are a rich source of information. The Drugs Squad is really not
that different from CARE - there is the same level of sensitivity and the
same amount of co-operation with other agencies.

"It's very satisfying to see the assets of drugs traffickers seized
and directed into the fight against drugs. Recently a judge awarded a
considerable amount of money seized from a dealer to a voluntary
agency which treats drug abusers.

"A lot of operations are long term - you don't expect them to pay off
the next day and you can't look for quick and easy gains.

"All the tact and discretion which were taken for granted in the CARE
unit are needed as Det Supt Gillespie ventures into the murky drugs
underworld of informants and anonymous tip-offs. And she can find
herself making the final call on situations which are literally of
life-or-death proportions.

Det Supt Gillespie highlights the growing use of heroin as an ominous
development and confesses to finding the scale of the problem daunting
at times. But as she looks ahead, she remains upbeat about the battle
against drugs.

She insists: "I was delighted when we uncovered the Ecstasy last week,
but we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. ""We can look at other
areas where drugs have become entrenched in the culture and ask them
what they would have done if they had known then what they know now.

"We in the police are a key agency, but we cannot do it alone, it
needs to involve everyone. All the parts of the jigsaw need to be in
place."