Cops opinion survey goes live

| 15/11/2010

(CNS): The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service has launched a public opinion survey that asks the community to rate its satisfaction levels with the service. A full and comprehensive version of the anonymous survey is available on line or paper versions can be collected at local supermarkets or from any police station. Senior members of the RCIPS launched the survey at Fosters Airport supermarket on Friday morning when Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis said the police wanted as many people as possible to fill in the forms and tell the RCIPS what they think of their performance. Shoppers appeared keen to stop and fill in the form which police have said will be used to shape future policies.

Ennis said it was very important for the RCIPS to measure public opinion. “Your views matter to us,” Ennis told the public at the launch of the project. He said the RCIPS wanted to ensure that the community gets the best possible customer service. “The survey will not only help us establish the needs and expectations of the people we serve, it will also allow us to identify areas where we are doing well and those where improvements need to be made.”

Chief Inspector Angelique Howell stated that the survey was the most comprehensive that had ever been conducted and that the results, which would be made public, would shape the way police do things in future and establish Key Performance Indicators. Although the police do receive feedback at meetings and have some idea of the level of public opinion from other forum Howell said that they were not second guessing what this survey would reveal.

“We are keeping an open mid and are prepared for anything the community will tell us,” she said. “We will be working with what ever comes to light and we are not working from a point of any particular expectations of what the results will be.”

She explained however, that the questions were designed by the RCIPS to help them find out specific things about what the public think of what they do and they do it. Howell said the paper questionnaire had fifteen general questions about the service and it also left room for people to make further notes and comments. The on-line survey offers people the opportunity to answer questions on specific branches and departments within the service that they may have had dealings with such as CID or the family support unit.

Questions include asking the public how satisfied they are with the efforts made by the RCIPS to tackle crime, their satisfaction over the security of information given to the police, how polite and friendly officers are, how happy the public is with the speed with which the police respond and how knowledgeable officers are about the law.

Deloitte’s have offered their services free of charge to collate the survey results and the police are hoping thousands of people will take part to give them a true picture of public opinion. The anonymous survey is open for three weeks until 3 December. Police will continue to promote the survey and will be making appearances over the next few weeks at various locations including supermarkets, banks, schools, and condo complexes.

The police will visit the sister Islands on Wednesday 24 November when they will be at Billie’s Supermarket on Cayman Brac and at Kirkconnell’s Market Place then on Little Cayman on Thursday 25 November at the Village Square.

Go to online survey: 

www.rcips.ky

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  1. MER says:

    What everyone fails to realize is that these officers are regular men with a red-stripe uniform! Hello, am I a police if I throw on one of the uniforms? Can someone tell me how long our "police training" program is and what it entails? According to the vacancy adverts when hiring new officers you must be 18 and older?? What does an 18 year old know about policing? Anyhoo, this is a dead case, waste of time.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Guys you can make as many comments as you want and direct them to the RCIPS here but its not the place where they’re looking to see your input.  How bout those who are so vocal here on CNS, complete the blinking questionnaire and make the same comments in there – where they will be read by the RCIPS???  

    For those of you who cannot read or missed it you can fill it in here:  http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BG3XK6JCU

     

    • Anonymous says:

      Of course it is the place to make our comments, more people read it, remember we still do have Freedom of Speech!!!  Everyone should blog their comments and opinions on the police.  Can you explain why things are being reported late to the public (example the hit and run where the victim died, the robbery and stabbing over the weekend, yes it was a long weekend, but CNS would report it immediately if they are told), oh yeah what about the break in at South Sound last week at around 1:30am (or somewhere around that time)?  The owners were in the house sleeping and someone came into the house and robbed it.  The public should be made aware of this!!!! 

      This questionnaire is hilarious, come on this is a Police Department for crying out loud, they should know how they are doing and what they are doing wrong, this is a no brainer!!!  When you have to send your officers back to school to read and write, that tells you something.  Hey nothing more on the lie detector tests either…lol….

       

    • TJ says:

      This questionaire is dumb!  I think they already know what is right!  They never listened to the public before, why are they all suddenly listening now! Do they in high position listen to their own ground level officers? I don’t think so

  3. papercaymanian says:

    I have many friends in RCIPS and they all say the same things in private;

    *We lack leadership.

    *Don’t tell the police dept. anything that you can’t say in the paper with your name attached.

    *The relationship with the AG office is adversarial rather than supportive.

    *We keep spending money in the wrong places.

    *1950s technology with 2010 judicial and evidence standards.

    Until we are a nation of laws we will be subjected to the whim of English policemen.

    When we can address why our fire dept. is 100% Caymanian but our police dept. is not,then we will be able to move forward

  4. sammy says:

    *** REDUCE THE BLOATED SIZE OF THE POLICE FORCE AND EQUIP THEM WITH BETTER ARMS OF DEFENSE ****

    We are spending too much money on officers with NO arms, sitting and hiding behind closed doors!  Some of them WON’T even respond to reports on time because they are scared for their lives – nothing to defend themselves!  The Commissioner has to do better than this!

     

  5. Kung Fu Iguana says:

    RCIP – you are doing a great job in very difficult circumstances.  I particularly would like to thank the officers from abroad who come here to protect everyone in Cayman.

    • Janice says:

      Officers from overseas???  What great job?!  Please tell the OVERSEAS Commissioner of Police to bring back officers that have at least some sort of STREET KNOWLEDGE!

      • Anonymous says:

        Oh yeah, gotta have that "street knowledge", as opposed to that "literacy capability"

        • Libertarian says:

          Funny… it was the Commissioner of Police that came up with Cayman Officers being illiterate, painting the image that the whole Police Service is made up that way. The Police Association had every right to be offended, because you have some dumb ones from the UK as well.

          Whether you have problems reading, writing, using the computer, or speaking like an English man, sorry… crime need to reduce, hence I would prefer the officer with the street knowledge than your "literacy capability" any day!

  6. Anonymous says:

    Great!  Now who is going to teach them to read so we can get the results of the survey?

  7. Anonymous says:

    From very limited public observations, RCIPS officers seem to regularly fail to signal and drive dangerously on our roads with the swagger of impunity.   

    I offer that if officers cared enough to obey traffic laws themselves, it would be a step towards public respect.  

    Of all of the shortcomings that we could sight, demonstrating leadership with the traffic laws is a winnable objective that should be mandatory for anyone that is given the keys to a government vehicle.

    • Some other Anonymous says:

       I saw one without his seat belt on two days ago

    • Pending says:

      They are normally (just about everytime i see a police car) too busy on their cell phones to remeber to put their seatbelts on, indicate, obey the speed limit etc.

  8. Anonymous says:

    The RCIP made no friends on Friday evening. One of them thought it would be a great idea to close Harbour Drive…..at 5PM!  I don’t think I’ve seen worse traffic in Cayman in 30 years. Hundreds, if not thousands of people in gridlock. Everyone knows that road needs to be shut and everyone knows traffic will be worse, but why shut the road at the exact time that everyone leaves work?, that’s just dumb.

    • Anonymous says:

      14:19 if you don’t know ask how police operation orders are put together. For your lack of information, it was not a one man decision. It is planned in High Command. Its so shameful when people proports to know something when they don’t know the basic elements of what they talking about. It makes them sound shallow. When they write on these sites they displa their knowledge or lack of it.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Feedback: I lodged an official complaint back in June and have yet to hear the results of the investigation. How long will I be expected to wait?

    It’s not acceptable to have the police policing themselves. There should be an independent agency/body that they have to answer to. Otherwise complaints are not taken seriously and do not appear to be dealt with at all.

    • anonymous says:

      Opinion survey?

      Let me tell you something  RCIP you very well know how the public feels about you. there are enough complaints and mishandled unsolved mysteries that speaks for RCIP itself.

      Sl don’t play on our intelligence like that.  FURTHERMORE. GO BACK AND OPEN UP THE CASE OF MR. JERVIS. WE DESERVE TO KNOW WHO THE KILLER IS THAT HIT HIM AND THE RAN AWAY IN THEIR VEHICLE.

      WHEN YOU START BRINGING IN BIG SHOTS WHETHER ELECTED OR NOT THEN WE CAN TELL THE UK YOUR’E DOING A GOOD JOB!

      IF THIS IS A STUNT YOU’RE PLAYING FOR THE UK TO READ GOOD COMMENTS ABOUT YOU IN OUR LOCAL FORUMS. YOU’RE MISTAKEN

       

  10. Anonymous says:

    they really need to ask?

    ok. a crime is committed…….. a few days later they make an arrest, everyones happy. a few months later the case reaches court. when the evidence etc is read out it is so weak and most of the time leads have not been followed concerning statements etc from the accused. dna has not been sent off. evidence is lost. then the guy walks free smiling to offend again .

    i know. i see it. believe me.

     

    • Anonymous says:

      or even worse injustice..they arrest the wrong person, but because some are easier to arrest they are on a revolving door and the ‘real criminals’ are not arrested and the crime continues. It seems that combined with their lack of knowledge, expertise and basic common sense the person they arrest is not guilty so they have inadequate evidence to begin with and after going to court and starting over, it is difficult if not impossible to obtain reliable evidence.

      this may be unpopular for may reasons, but one suggestion:

       Since for years it has been foolishly argued Caymanians cant police their own, how about we have the entire force downsized and havehalf the officers from the UK (given relatively small % of English people here so no issues with ‘policing their own") who will not be monitoring a population now maxed out with Jamaicans and now in close running the Canadians, whose representation in the force is quite obvious.

  11. Libertarian says:

    1. The Police Service can be more successful in fighting crime with 200 well equiped and firearmed trained officers, than with the 300+ officers it has now who are NOT equiped and trained to deal with hardcore offenders. Plus with having CCTV camaras everywhere there is no need to increase the force to well over 400. Also asking the LA for more monies and more officers is becoming too costly for the country as a whole.

    2. Too monies are being spent from the public purse on foreign officers, specifically – the UK ones who each time they come to Cayman, end up investigating Cayman for some kind of "Corruption" issue, bathing in the sea at Rum Point (more vacation than work), and then after staying here for a short time, take credit for reducing our crime. If UK presence had been so link to reducing our crime, why is it that the Commissioner of Police is from the UK and crime has been on the increase since the day he was enlisted. We have spent from the public purse over millions of dollars on foreign officers who have not contribute one cent back to the purse, but all to put a bad name in the Newspapers or on BBC about us, which I must admit, has effected our international relations with the world. The too much UK interference of this magnitude has to stop! Crime has increased, and the old local officers with the street knowledge are gone… I suggest they hire them back. 

    3. Too much favoritism!  Good officers are being kept down from places of authurity whilst the kiss%ss ones are put in places of leadership. There is no democratic process or ballot or voting amongst the Constables as to who would be worthy of Sergeant position. Once someone gets into the ranking structure of the RCIP there is little one can do to take him out! The rest depends on the higher ranking officers liking him or not liking him. But I think at least from the ground level, Ennis or the Commissioner should put a policy in place where a Sergeant can not be chosen by anyone in the RCIP rank… leave that to the voting process of Police Constables and how that candidate is graded on a psychological and sergeant test. This would eliminate the favoritism a big deal, and you would have worthy people in leadership.

    Overall, I think the Police can do better if it changes it own internal policies!

    • Anonymous says:

      All the thumbs down :- "Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up"