After 36 years in the Jamaica Defence Force - five of which he served as chief of staff - Lewin became the island's 26th police commissioner with the reputation as a no-nonsense leader and a stickler for discipline.
Lewin had hit the national headlines in 2005 when he described Tivoli Gardens, in the west Kingston constituency then represented by Edward Seaga, as "the mother of all garrisons".
That gained him no friends in the Jamaica Labour Party and could be part of the reasons for his rocky relationship with some members of the present administration.
But it was inside the force that the tough-talking Lewin has faced his greatest opposition.
He had replaced Lucius Thomas, a commissioner described by the men and the women in the force as "a cops' cop".
It was clear from early that Lewin had no intention of "sucking up" to the persons under his command and in his first press briefing, he sent out a warning to corrupt cops.
"When one mentions the word police, I am sure that one of the first things that come to mind is the ugly word corruption.
"For these reasons, tackling corruption is and will remain one of my highest priorities for the JCF. The challenge is how to make the JCF more resistant to and intolerant of unlawful, unethical and unprofessional behaviour," Lewin said.
He was speaking at a press conference where he declared that one of his first acts as commissioner was to sign and promulgate the anti-corruption plan for the force.
Lewin was also to signal that Tivoli Gardens was not a "no-go zone" and months after he assumed the top job in the force, police and soldiers stormed the community in search of a man they said had fled St James after being placed on the most-wanted list.
While government officials publicly voiced their support for the police and their right to enter the JLP enclave, many questions were asked about the measures employed by the police and soldiers who stormed the community that Sunday morning.
"The security forces have a right to go where they want and they have been active in Tivoli on dozens of occasions without any problems. But, the new commissioner, notwithstanding his expressed bias against Tivoli Gardens … ," declared Seaga, the former member of parliament, days after the operation.
tendered resignation
Less than six months later, news came that Lewin had tendered his resignation because he was not getting the full support of rank and file in the fight against crime.
That came as no surprise to Prime Minister Bruce Golding who days before had declared that he was not satisfied the police were doing enough to deal with the crime wave.
According to Golding at the time, disaffection with Lewin among the rank and file as one of the reasons he had been given.
But Lewin was encouraged to stay in the job and, to the disappointment of some career cops and political activists, the resignation did not take effect.
Now 16 months later, it seems even some of those who begged Lewin to stay at that time want to give him the boot.
With reports surfacing that Lewin and some senior members of the Government are not on speaking terms, he is being blamed for the failure of the police to tame the crime monster.
Last year, the country recorded 1,611 murders slightly up from the 1,583 recorded in 2007. However, the commissioner claimed the year could have been worse had the police not acted decisively to combat crime.
He noted that at the end of May, murders and shootings for the year had increased to 16 per cent and 14 per cent, over the 2007 figures.
"Had that trend continued, we would have seen somewhere around 1,700 or so murders for 2008," Lewin claimed as he announced that the police would be targeting a five per cent reduction in murders this year.