Risky, intriguing, dangerous, bold, breathtakingly interesting, and exhilarating are some of the superlatives that I can use to describe Jeremy Vearey’s latest book.
I have read so many memoirs, but this one has left me with chills down my spine.
In Into Dark Water, Major-General Jeremy Vearey opens up about his personal career journey in the South African Police Service (SAPS).
From the highs and lows, to having his life marked by gangsters and drug lords in the Western Cape and the politics that has seen him being suspended in SAPS throughout his career than he would have loved to.
Perusing through the pages of this book, I got to understand not only how Jeremy’s life is constantly under threat by those that he wants to bring to book, but also how those who are supposed to be supporting him in this fight are supposedly conniving with the enemy to end his good intentions.
Into Dark Water vividly captures how politics is often at the centre of the failing policing not only in the Western Cape but throughout the country.
I think one theme that I strongly believe captures the essence of this book is the mental health of police officers. Moreover, the failure to deal with their mental health.
Police officers face so many horrific incidents in their day-to-day operations, some of which make permanent stay in their minds, and Jeremy touches on one that is refusing to leave his mind.
However, with limited resources, many police officers fail to deal with their mental health issues and many like Vearey resort to alcohol for help.
While the scribe shyly touches on the subject, the book opens that conversation that I believe would help us find solutions to some of the contributing factors that have seen the country experience some of the worst policing from our law enforcement officers.
I think the only bummer for me was how technically the book was poorly organized. One minute you read about Jeremy’s fight with gangsters in Mitchell’s Plain and on the same page, you are forced to read about him in Spain or England.
Besides that, this is an interesting read from one of the commanding voices in our police service.