Crime concerns top OT report
(CNS): The result of the UK’s consultation with its overseas territories has revealed that crime and the need for economic diversification remain the leading concerns among the people. Following the open public consultation by the FCO inviting comment from the territories, the report reveals that people from the Cayman Islands submitted the most responses of any territory, making up 35% of the submissions. The report stated that the growth in crime rates was discussed more frequently than any other issue and over half of the concerns regarding crime were raised by contributors from the Cayman Islands.
In the Cayman government’s own submission it too highlighted public safety as a significant challenge. The report said it was violent and organized gang crime which was raised most often.
The report will be one of a number of elements that will contribute towards shaping a new white paper that the UK is preparing in regards to its future relationships with its territories. Consequently, people were asked to comment on how the UK could support and cooperate with the territories in addressing the various challenges that residents perceive are impacting their lives.
Law enforcement was considered the most important area of cooperation and most of these submissions came from residents of the Cayman Islands, one of whom said the “skills related to the gathering and effective protection of solid evidence is lacking.”
Another submission received from the Cayman Islands suggested that the UK Government was not meeting its obligations to tackle drug smuggling or training police and called for a greater focus on training local police as opposed to relocating them from other countries.
Aside from crime, Cayman, like other territories, raised economic challenges but the report notes that the submissions from Cayman and elsewhere were as much about structural economic issues as they were about the economic crisis. The need for diversification of the economy and unemployment were specific concerns raised in the report. One of the most frequent concerns was the fear that ex-patriot workers were undercutting the pay of local workers.
“A total of eight submissions, largely from residents of the Cayman Islands, mentioned this concern and two respondents from the Cayman Islands proposed the introduction of a minimum wage to combat the problem.”
The report also published the official response from the Cayman government on this issue: “Striking the appropriate balance between attracting qualified and expert labour from overseas and, in the process of so doing, not obstructing the progress and development of the local workforce remains an elusive task and one that would seem to be central to any successful economic planning in the Cayman Islands.”
In summarizing the findings of the consultation exercise, the report found that the greatest challenges to economic development include economic diversification, infrastructure needs and the global financial crisis but when it came to everyday life, the territories are most challenged by crime, cost of living and unemployment. When it came to cooperation with the UK, law enforcement was the most significant.
Corruption and election franchising were also cited as difficult for territories when dealing with politics and government. The issues of transparency, poor planning and corruption were the most prominent issues raised in relation to good governance and highlighted as priorities for improvement. The UK could help more, the report found, with the provision of audits and advice.
See full report below.
Category: Politics
It is clear from both this report and another recent report that the people wishes and concerns are the importation of more foreign police and have indicated that they would like to see a shift in police hiring practices and put more focus on hiring and training more local police and just like our political leader Mr Baines is blantantly ignoring good advice and what the citizens want and is going full steam ahead doing as he feel like hiring even more foreign officers no matter the cost to the tax payer.
The sad part we do not have a single entity or soul to advocate on the people's behalf in such matters yet we contribute or give the most input and all they do is collect the information an use it against us and still do what they want. These are the people who help create the Joseph Kony's and Michael Misick of this world and put on this charade or game to act as if they are doing something about it. They simply create problems to fix them and do not care who gets hurt in between. FCO always like to play the two ends against the middle.
Has anyone noticed that the districts with the least crime are the two districts with single member constituencies?
In North Side Mr Ezzard Miller is held to account by the North Side residents to the extent that as soon as there were two robberies in the district he had to go out and beg the funds to install security camras throughout the district. That is what I call results, I just wish I lived in North Side instead of George Town.
It is for this reason that I hope that the voters in George Town are as frustrated with a system where you cannot get any of the representatives to take responsibility for the crime here in Town and do something about it.
As a George Town voter I will not be exersising my option to cast 4 (or 6) votes next election. I will cast one vote for one candidate that I will hold accountable even if the system is not changed.
I can only hope that enough people in George Town and West Bay feel the same way about accountability as I do and will sign the petition for a referandum where we will have an oppurtunity to change the political landscape to one of responsibility to the voter not the investor.
Ssssssssssssh man! they do not want to hear that, because that was the plan and strategy all along the deliberated and planned dismantling of the RCIPS and some of its most capable officers and units in order to facilitated the employment of certain nationalities including their own and ballooning of the police budget because of crime was conducted by the very people now carrying out this survey. This is only their very sarcastic way of seeing how fool our political leadership and we are on this island. Oh before i forget the severing of old and established excellent law enforcement ties with other jurisdictions by their promoted local & incompetent stooges who helped remove the officers who did has also put them in full control of this little place and put the Cayman Islands in a extremely bad position financially and law enforcement & crime wise.
What a shame some don't see this sick little game us and the young people on this island who are now are paying a very steep price for with their lives and imprisonment. Play deh ting daddada play deh ting dadada. I know u looking 4 me still!
Keep wearing the foil hat, it will stop the voices. Take it off when you are using the microwave though!
This Government has failed on crime and all other issues. They care about traveling on our dollar. One man one vote will change all of this and that.
This is a lot of piffle. The number one concern and challenge impeding progress in ANY of those areas is corruption and our broken political and electoral system.
Amen. To all those who have still not signed the petition, please do so for the sake of our country and our children.
As usual the people with a real handle on what is wrong here were too busy trying to plan accordingly to participate in the consultation. The crackpots, dinosaurs and hobby-horse-riders wrote in with their weak analysis, pet projects, and half-baked thoughts. The result is a document which justifies the UK in doing whatever they like.
"over half of the concerns regarding crime were raised by contributors from the Cayman Islands." In response a prominent politician stated,"We gots no concerns. I gots a big fence an we made sure dat Auntie Corruptin Law not wurkin."