Baines gets top cop job

| 28/04/2009

(CNS): In a decision likely to come as a surprise to the local community James Smith the Acting Police Commissioner has not been given Cayman’s top cop job. The post has gone to David Baines, who will commence his job as the new permanent Commissioner of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) on the 1 June. A British national, Baines has had a 31-year career in the United Kingdom with additional cross-border experience in a number of European countries. Making the announcement today, Governor Stuart Jack said the selection process had been very thorough and had involveda great deal of background research and he was looking forward to working with Baines.

I am confident that he has the skills and experience to see through the modernisation of the police service and meet the needs of this community, he said. The governor also paid tribute to Acting Commissioner Jim Smith, who missed out on the post for the second time.

"Commissioner Smith has done an excellent job under very difficult circumstances,” Jack added.  “His professionalism and dedication to the task set for him, particularly in relation to Operations Tempura and Cealt has been a tremendous benefit to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service and the community.”

Speaking about the selection process, the governor said the private and public sectors had been involved with some thirty community members from all walks of life participating in a series of focus groups, which provided input to the recruitment panel members on the current challenges facing the RCIPS and the selection criteria for recruitment. Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs Deputy Chief Secretary, Donovan Ebanks, who served as deputy chair of the selection panel, praised the new recruitment process: “The participation of private sector and community representatives worked extremely well and is a model for similar processes in the future.”

Baines, who is 49 years old, comes to Cayman from his most recent post as Assistant Chief Constable with the Cheshire Constabulary.  In Cheshire he commanded 2,200 officers responsible for delivering the full range of policing services to the public in line with Cheshire’s annual and three-year policing plans. These services include major crime investigation, organized crime investigation, an economic crime unit, public order, and firearms/counter-terrorism capabilities. His work has involved close cooperation with criminal justice partners, in particular the Crown Prosecution Service, the Courts and Probation in order to deliver victim-focused services to the community.

Prior to his work with the Cheshire Constabulary, Baines was Chief Superintendent with the Greater Manchester Police. Here he was recognised for developing a new model of community-focused policing that re-established the trust and confidence of ethnic and inner city communities in the local police in challenging areas such as Oldham and Salford, following the worst race riots experienced in the United Kingdom.

As Superintendent in Greater Manchester, Baines was Head of Corporate Performance. He was responsible for setting annual performance targets for the force based on feedback from the public and local stakeholders. He has built on this experiencein recent years to develop, in partnership with KPMG, a special programme called “Quest”, which has successfully improved efficiencies in the Cheshire Police and has been recognized by the Home Office as a model of its kind in the UK.

Before that Baines spent three years in the National Crime Squad (the forerunner of the Serious Organised Crime Agency) as a Branch Commander responsible for three specialist teams of officers totalling 75 detectives. During this time he dealt with major investigations focusing on international fraud, money laundering and corruption within the UK and other European countries.

He began his career as a Police Cadet at the age of 16 and has taken numerous general and specialist training courses in aspects such as firearms, public order, and diversity. In 2005 he was one of the top graduates of the National Strategic Command Course – the leading course for senior police officers in the UK. He will shortly complete the Master of Studies course in International Relations at Wolfson College, Cambridge.  He has said that he sees education and training as vital and has recently developed with Chester University a university level training programme that provides a foundation course for new police officers.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Where is my post that I posted yesterday?

    CNS: I can’t tell you – I see hundreds of comments every day. If you don’t see it email it to me here and I’ll tell you why it wasn’t posted or rethink it a bit.

  2. TEAM CAYMAN says:

    Dang!  He look too much like Simon Cow to me!  Let’s hope and pray that he dont  make decisions base on American Idol!  Mr. Baines it seems like you may be the right man with the plan to get this job done!  They need some pepping up down there at that station that’s for sure!  Take my advice and just give them that Simon Cow look, and you will see how fast they will start doing their jobs right for once!!!!!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Good luck to him, he’ll certainly need it!

  4. Anonymous says:

    This is a man who is used to dealing in excellence eg his Quest programme in partnership with KPMG – he is going to be really disappointed when he sees the bunch of cowboys that he is command of now!

  5. Shaun Ebanks says:

    First of all, let me welcome Mr. David Baines to the Cayman Islands and congradulate him on his new appointment as the RCIPS Commissioner. He is now Commissioner # 5 in the last (3) three years or so, which clearly indicates that he has many challenges ahead of him.

    I trust that having applied for this post and been awarded it, his "true spirited intentions" is to now re-establish stability and confidence in the RCIPS through dialogue and a well founded partnership with the public.

    In his upcoming reviews/analysis of the RCIPS, he will no doubt find many things that have gone awry in the RCIPS over the past five years or so. In fact, some longer than that. Firstly, I believe his primary responsiblity is to restore the image of the RCIPS and to hopefully change the way in which people think and view the organization. I might add, it’s not a very comforting and reassuring position that the RCIPS finds itself in.This is not his fault nor the majority of the presently serving police officers. I applaud his courage/commitment at a time like this and would hope that the RCIPS makes a 360 dergree’s turn (for the better) in the next two years or else he and the organization will be viewed as a absolute failure.   

    Most people living in the Cayman Islands want’s to see a well functioning and effective police service, maintaing law and order and meeting the needs of the community not just for a selected few, but for all, natives and ex-pat’s alike.

    The Caymanian people are a warm and friendly people and many will help him change the image of the police service but he must be prepared to meet us half-way. In meeting us there, he should be prepared look, listen, learn and live amongst us as one people and in doing this, he will get to understand our caribbean culture. Once establishing this, he will additionally get first hand knowledge of the organizational culture of the Caymanian and Ex-pat criminals, that most of us wish we didn’t have to experience/encounter on a daily basis.

    Never the less, he should understand that the Cayman Islands is not the Turks and Caicos Islands or some "banana republic" requiring his or some outsider so called "midus touch". That has been the down fall of many in the past. We are not without our own faults as there are those whom are in the RCIPS, other Government Departments, Statutory Authorities etc etc, earning a salary through what one can only describe as "false pretence as a result of incompetence" There is much "house cleaning" to done without political interference.

    May I also suggest that upon commencing his post, he should immediately organize a "Cold Case Squad" in CID consisting of at least 2-3 seasoned detectives full time, to deal all of the many unsolved Homicides and other serious crimes that have been forgotten about. I can assure you, that just clearing/detecting two/three at a minimum in the next year or so, will boost the image of the RCIPS and most imortantly the new commander in chief.

    Mr. Baines should also realise and accept that he is not that intelligent, experienced, educated that he can’t learn much in the Cayman Islands Society.  If he adapt’s that attitude, then he is well on his way to becoming a well respected Police Commissioner. I wish him well and as a former RCIPS senior police officer with much experience and knowledge under my belt, much of which I didn’t get to practice through circumstances beyond my control, I and others in the same capacity are prepared to assist the Commissioner (himself directly) in "advisory capacity" and on a "voluntary basis" for the betterment of the RCIPS and the Cayman Islands as a whole.

     

    Shaun Ebanks.

     

      

  6. Twyla Vargas says:

    HOLD TIGHT, TOP COP

    We naw ready  check ya out yet.   Election Fever too hot now,see ya after the 20th May.   Blessed

  7. Sam Puk-Puk says:

    Is that you……

     For a second when I saw the picture, I thought that was Curtis Eldemire.  LOL!

    Too bad we never got the Mad Mullah dude.  I’m also thinking the gun lovers here are cheering that Smith nerver got the job because of his dislike of guns and our boys no wanting to give up their toys.

    Don’t shoot the messenger, just calling it as I see.

    SPP

     P.S. Thanks for having a easy access/comment section. Although at times a lot of B.S. ; it is still thought provoking.  I’m hooked 🙂