SPIT still a distraction

The irony of the governor’s recent appearance on the press briefing platform to tell us all to come forward and report what we know to the police in the wake of the recent horrific violence could not have been lost on those who have followed the news closely over the last 16 months.

It cannot be forgotten so soon that it was indeed Stuart Jack who originally brought in the officers from Scotland Yard and not only stood by but encouraged Martin Bridger, the former lead investigator of the Special Police Investigation Team, who was fundamental in demoralising the RCIPS and fuelling further mistrust between the service and the people.

The impact of Operation Tempura and the lingering secrets of so-called Operation Cealt have left the people of Cayman questioning and wondering exactly what the situation really is with the RCIPS — which remains a serious distraction for the police as they attempt to tackle what appears to be a growing crime wave.

Long a whipping boy for all of society’s ills, the local police in Cayman have suffered further and possibly  irreparable damage from the last 16 months, even though not a shred of real evidence has been presented to the Cayman people about any of them being corrupt in anyway. In fact, given the ruling of Sir Peter Cresswell, the only police officer bending the law to suits his own ends seemed to be SIO Bridger.

It is time to bring this issue to a close, not just in order to save some cash for the Cayman purse but so the police can get on with their jobs untainted by secret and mysterious investigations.

Like any group of people anywhere in the world, there will be some who are less than honest, others who are incompetent and more who are lazy, but as the new Commissioner David Baines noted this week, anyone caught in corruption or leaking information to criminals should be sacked — simple. We don’t need undercover foreign cops lurking in the shadows, getting up to who knows what themselves. We need a commissioner who can take control and shine a light on incompetence and corruption if it’s there, not cover it up more as seems to have been the result of the SPIT’s work.

After several million dollars, numerous arrests and damages claims, the Cayman public is still utterly in the dark about the so-called police corruption that first Bridger and now Anne Lawrence has been overseeing, a distraction we can ill-afford. And worse, the governor has come to the public asking us to trust the police and tell what we know about dangerous gangsters, even though he himself, by his actions, appears to trust them even less than the wider public.

It was perhaps not the most prudent of moves for the governor, given what he has overseen, to add his voice to the campaign to get people to come forward. With five murders already on the booksthis year, three of which have been shootings, and following on from the toll of seven murders last year, the police need all the support they can get right now to get information on the recent gunmen, but more importantly to get to the bottom of the escalating violence.

There can be no doubt that the increase in violence and what appears to be the audacity of criminals will be at least influenced by the fact that they recognise the demoralisation in the RCIPS as a result of the arrival of SPIT and the mistrust of the service it has fuelled.

The new Commissioner David Baines seems to be under no illusions about the challenges he faces, but he needs to distance himself as much as possible from the impact Operations Tempura and Cealt have had. He would do well to be the top cop that is associated with bringing these clandestine investigations to a close and the removal of SPIT from the island in order to gain both the support of his officers and the community.

Sadly, Baines probably does not have that much choice about who he shares a public platform with, but as he gets his police boots further under the proverbial table and begins to assert his own authority a little more, he would do well to ask the governor to stay home next time so he can get on with building the confidence of the people in the RCIPS once again and get on with the job of getting these gangsters off our streets.