Stats reflect public concern
(CNS): Although the police have not yet announced their official crime figures for 2009, a commenter to the CNS website has taken the time to collate crime statistics over 2009 based on news reports on the site which reveal a dramatic increase in murders, armed robberies, muggings and burglaries in the second half of the year. The reader’s statistical analysis comes in the wake of an outpouring of comments from literally hundreds of CNS readers over the Christmas break demanding something be done about what is seen as an uncontrollable surge in violent crime within the community. (See full graph below)
Since June the Cayman Islands has seen five murders, compared to the first six months when there were three and 13 armed robberies compared to four between the end of 2008 and the end of June 2009. The stats also reveal 16 muggings during 2009, 13 of which have happened since June. The statistics are based on reports posted on CNS throughout 2009 and come following an intense display of concern to the site this week about Cayman’s crime problem.
The commenter, who wishes to remain anonymous, also calculated there were 19 burglaries reported on CNS, 14 of which had occurred since June, a statistic which probably reflects only part of the picture as the RCIPS does not routinely report break-ins and burglaries to the press. There are also a number of other crimes that may have gone unreported over the last 12 months. CNS understands, for example, that a stabbing also occurred during a domestic dispute over the holiday weekend, though no report was made by the police to the media.
While the wider public has been convinced for some time that the last six months have seen a dramatic increase in violent crime, the work of the CNS commenter dramatically illustrates that position.
Following literally hundreds of postings in the last few days about crime and demanding that politicians and the police take action, a number of posters have also suggested organising a public demonstration to the Legislative Assembly to show the authorities how they feel about what is perceived as increasing lawlessness in the community.
The reader who created the graph said that he was certain that assaults, muggings and armed robberies were up in the second half of the year but when he took the time to make the graph he said he was shocked to see how much. “Please look at the posts below and see for yourself,” he told CNS. “My numbers might be off one here and there but the huge increase can’t be disputed.”
Although he said he did not want to blame any particular political party or the police as he believed the situation had been building for a while, it was clear something had to be done. “Now the current government, police, business community, and its people need to all work together to turn this around. If New York City can do it we can. We as a country have to stop this from growing any further. If we don’t, what will crime numbers look like by Dec 2010?” he asked.
As the readers to CNS call on police and politicians, the politicians and police are calling on the public to help solve the crime. With no willing witnesses coming forward for the spate of tit for tat killings, which started in July of this year and have resulted in the death of five young men at the end of a gun, police continue to appeal to people to come forward and tell them what they know. However, perceptions that the police cannot protect their identity and incidences of witness tampering have made the public increasingly reluctant to give information as they fear for their own safety.
Last week following the murder of Fabian Powell by Welly’s Cool Spot sometime on Monday night / Tuesday Morning, 27/28 December, Police Commissioner David Baines appeared briefly on News 27 to state that he was working with the attorney general on legislation to allow witnesses to give evidence during trials while protecting their identity through voice distortion and screens. Pleading for witnesses in the latest shooting, Baines promised that they could come forward in confidence. “I am assuring anybody that comes forward they will be able to give evidence with anonymity in the New Year,” he told News 27, although no official announcement has been made regarding the potential legislative change.
CNS has also submitted a number of questions to the commissioner regarding the current crime levels, the ongoing murder investigations and the surge in the use of firearms and is awaiting a response.
Category: Headline News
Ignore the Burglary figures. The actual figures for burglary 01 Jan 2009 – 30 June 2009 were 300 and 8 additional aggravated burglaries. (These were taken from the RCIP website June – Dec haven’t yet been published).
I got the above info from an Ex RCIPS officer. Interesting.
I think many of the posters were right. Mr.Haines would certainly make a real and quick effect on the crime we are now facing. i doubt though that Baines would bring him back in any capacity becasue then he wouldn’t receive any credit for getting the job done…or would he?
It seems such a shame that we have an expert and proven crime fighter living among us and we are not putting him to use. Of course, he now has a nice job at DART’s but I am sure Mr. Dart wouldn’t mind giving him a sabbatical if Baines or the Government would have the guts to to the right thing and ask for his assistance.
Have some balls Mr. Baines, there is no harm in asking for assistance. Mr. Haines know Cayman well and could work wonders for the RCIP and for Cayman on a whole.
to CNS – what is the Christmas ‘beak’ please? LOL, just friendly kidding, an exceptionally rare typo in what is always a fantastic news service, but i do have a serious point, and that is can you tabulate the ‘detections’ publicised for 2009 as well from your archives? I just thought it might make a good contrast/illustration…… i know you guys are slammed, just a thought….
CNS: Thanks. We really do appreciate it when people point out typos (except Knal, who gets a bit snitty about it). The RCIPS will be releasing their stats at some point, so rather than go through our archives, which is a bit daunting timewise, we’ll see what they reveal. However, if anyone out there has time on their hands…….
You may well be right, but given the man Mr Haines is, he would probably be more willing to help out Gratis, (although not enough to need a work permit presumably!) as indeed I would suggest would be many of the other disenfranchised officers mentioned in the other post (experts and proven crime fighters among them) who have been royally taken up the er, pass, by current members (yes members) of the RCIPS. The problem is that those current members (even those about to embark on a life of fried chicken paradise) are so short sighted, so scared of skill and progress, that they would resist the help as vehemently as the fat man resisted John Jones’ return to duty….
Two things:- 1) Would there be such pressure to fight crime if the offenders were mainly Caymanian and/or members of prominent families? Doubt it, and 2) is it me? or shushhhhhh, has it all gone quiet on the serious crime front? Don’t tell any of the copy cat DVD watching ‘gangstas’ we have here…. shhhhhhh……….
well those that know need to be charges with accessory to the crime,..,
simple as that.
Derek Haines was ‘retired’ or in fact quietly left the RCIPS. XXXXXX Best if Haines is left where he is.
God what short memories we have!! Seems nobody recalls the public calls for his ‘departure’ when he was there! Just can’t please us Caymanians!
Dear "Those that mistreated Chief ",
The ‘Govt. of the day’, are the Elected representatives of the people, and therefore an extension of ‘us or we’, the people of these Cayman Islands.
Also, as I recall, there were no MAJOR Public Outcries (and I stress Major), Protests, Petitions or even much Debate on Radio making any Effort to have Mr. Haines re-instated at the time. That too, is our ‘Constitutional Right’.
But it seems now that ‘our chickens have come home to roost’, the very Ignorance that caused his departure from the RCIPS would wish us to have him Forcefully returned to them?
IF Mr. Haines were to return to the RCIPS (of which I would be extremely happy), that is his decision, AND HIS ALONE to make, we can’t have him forcefully returned as you seem to wish.
The effectiveness of a Police Force is relevant to the level of support it recieves from the community which it serves. Give them the Tool that they need most to do the job, give them our support.
It seems to me you all still dont get it. If I lived in a house that my parents were criminals well I would live a life of crime. Look at the figures for the 1st 6 months compared to the last 6 months of 2009 and remember what major event happened just prior to the end of the 1st 6 months. NUFF SAID!!!!!!!!
This is truly disheartening!
And likely only a preview of more tocome.
Decades of greedy selfishness has fueled this situaion. No real socio-economic plans. Politicians with mostly self interest. Twisted religious rhetoric, again for self seving purposes. Prejudice and intolerance. An all out campaign to minimize Human Rights during the "modernised" 2009 Constitution, rather than an effort to educate and embrace diversity…have all played a significant role in the mess we find ourselves in today.
What’s even more disheartening is that those in power seem no closer to the "awareness" necessary for real change to enable justice and fairness for all, than ever.
Cayman is sowing the seeds it planted and carefully nurtured now for decades.
Baines and Haines. I like it! Could be a dynamic crime-fighting duo.
Dont get your point. Who would fight the crime, Haines or Baines.
Who is Derek Haines? His name pops up frequently and I gather from all of the recent comments he was a very popular figure on the Island.
Forgive my ignorance but as you all gather I am not a local, having said that I still have an interest in local news and views.
He was a senior police officer who was more or less "ousted" as a result of doing his job a bit too well…
Derek Haines was not respected because of his popularity, he was respected because he got the job done. The Druglords and crminals were afraid of him and his task force. And they ran from Inspector Brady like the africans run from a Lion in the congo. That’s what I call protecting the community. We lost it when we lost those good men whose names are mentioned in these media forums and I hope the commissioner of police is listening and reading and that he shows us the respect to answer us in these forums just as he answered Gordon Barlow, ofcourse not is such a fashion!criminals were not on the lose running the town, Derek Hanies was running tings dem days. Now ;the criminals have taken over, we need these task force back to put them back into the holes they belong into,.
Derek Haines was an honest, hard nosed, take no crap leader of various departments, including the Drugs Task Force, within the then-respected RCIP.
Unfortunately, the take-no-crap aspect needed to run a proper police force, and the lack of willingness to kiss the right asses, fell out of favor with local leaders who passed him over for top positions, dooming the force, and leading him to take a more satisfying and probably far more lucrative (though far from likely his motivating factor) position as the top "cop" in the Dart Camana Bay project.
Today he leads up the security in this new town and though I am sure he has fond memories of his days in the RCIP, and more than likely would have rather stayed and made a difference, he would be risking far more to go back, and thus will likely live on as a legend in his time.
Cayman can only hope to have another Haines in the force – and this time, take the opportunity to treat them right, and reap the rewards of doing so.
He was a masked crime fighter who would roam the streets of GT and West Bay at night, with his trusted attack iguana always at his side, fighting crime and, in his spare time, improving road safety. Some say he never left but is hiding in the mangroves waiting for the sign of the stingray to light up the sky.
I literally LOL’d
First the police has to ask themselves how many murder cases have they solved??? Second they have to ask themselves…how many cold cases has gone unsolved??? Let’s be truthful here my fellow Caymanians the Caymanian cops are not getting the job done…they are lacking behind on every known evidence to solved all of these cases. All they are good for is handing out car tickets to people and talking down to them.
If this was America cops or detectives, they would had already gotten the job done, and that’s a known fact! What the Cayman Permier Minister/Government need to do is to hire COPS from AMERICA who is very SMART and SKILLFUL when it comes to cold case files and SOLVING THEM, and has the BEST EXPERTISE and the GREATEST INTELLIGENCE TEAM in the WORLD. You will see crime rate really go down once they hire these cops in Cayman.
Let’s face it the British cops our government has hired are not getting the job done! The Jamaican cops our government has hired are also not getting the job done! We are now into a new year and the time for a CHANGE is now! They are too much cold cases here and too much murderers are getting away free in Cayman!
If you think American cops are any better than anyone else you are out of your mind.
Attaching a crime to innocent people is the american way. Just look at how many people are being released from US prisons for crimes they did not commit.
That has part to do with the American cops, and part of it to do with the American prosecutors, who are just as happy to "pin" a crime on someone, other than who committed it.
American cops, are you insane or what, they wouldn’t be there 2 days when the money dangled in their face would buy them out so fast you wouldn’t know what happened.
The only thing more corrupt than them is an a….hole
ok, ok, ok. firstly, your statement of "Let’s face it the British cops our government has hired are not getting the job done!" is almost as non-sensical as your poorly educated command of the English language. If you are not skilled or familiar with a particular language, my advice is to not go public and try and shout about things that clearly neither of your brain cells can grasp… the reason that ‘the british cops… are not getting the job done’ is because you my friend, and your fellow protectionist and xenophobic racially discriminatory Caymanians (or honourary Caymanians – read jamaicans) have rail roaded most of them out of the service (Haines, Green, Siddall, Kernohan, Alexander, Pilbeam, Catterall, Williams, Dewing, Hindle, Warren, Bennetts, Daisley, Coles, Grevitt, etc etc), I think there is only 5 or 6 front line british cops left there now, radically less than two years ago, say… are you better off without them?
One of the reasons that UK cops are sought is because they are some of the best trained in the world, the laws in the UK are more or less the same as there I beleive, (or at least yours are based on the UK laws), and there is a UK overseas territory.
The problem you face is the great Caymanian contradiction (read tradition), -we will take foreigners’ money, but not foreigners!!
p.s. any grammatical or spelling errors are included for educational purposes…
I agree with those who would like to see Derek Haines back in the service. I am asking the Government to speak to Mr Haines and if he agrees to come back the he should be re-employed asap.
Just as birds flock together, criminals also flock together.
Those who are committing the crimes and those who know who are committing the crimes but remain mum are one and the same, therefore it is unlikey that anyone will expose the other.
If we are to solve any of these crimes the Police will have to do it forensically since all criminals leave some kind of marker at the crime scenes, be it DNA or whatever.
To say that our Police force is capable of solving anything other than by someone showing them the way is wishful thinking, and they not being forensically inclined leaves us with no hope of ever putting an end to this, so lets face the facts, we have joined other caribbean islands who have the same unsolvable crime problem and we are stuck with it for the rest of our lives or unless we do something drastic about who we select to represent us in politics.
Assuming the RCIP had an advanced forensics lab (which they don’t), what dbase would they compare the DNA or finger print sample against? FBI? Interpol? We are an island of 40-50k people. Cayman doesn’t even have its own coroner, let alone its own lab. Though we all wish itwere not so, "tallish, dark complexion" is really as sophisticated as crime fighting has evolved here. Ergo, the reliance upon apublic (who complicitly harbour the recidivists) = unsolved crimes. The question we need to ask is how do we change the process so that a reluctant community will step forward without fear of reprisal?
Why in the name of (insert here) would Derek come back after the way we treated him?
We made every attempt to ‘railroad’ this highly decorated, Internationally respected, and hard-working ‘Patriot’ (and I don’t use this term loosely) of the Cayman Islands, because he dared to expose our deficiencies, corruption, and enforce the Laws of these Islands …. ‘How dare he’.
As a country we are neither Mature enough to appreciate the work of someone like Derek Haines, nor can we handle having someone as up-right as him being ‘in-charge’, and probably won’t ever be in my lifetime.
We are reaping what we have sown ….
Those that mistreated Chief Inspector Derek Haines was the government of that day, not the people, so get your facts right.
we are the people that have every costitutional right to demand that Derek Haines be returned, reeive an apology from government on behalf of the old past governments that mistreated him and again serve the community, solving crime as he is known to do. Was he busting any big shots the reason why its so difficult to get him back? no one is answering that question so it must be true.
And raising Work Permit fees are going to help??????? We will see more businesses leave!!!
DEREK HAINES…nuff said… Bring him back…Commissioner Baines…you may be the Commissioner but I would really say a word of advice here. APPOINT Derek Haines as one of your Deputy Commissioners and let him run with the ball on stopping crime and just dont interfere with how he does it. Since you are the Commissioner you can reap the credit. Win Win for you..Win Win for us in Cayman.
Haines is the answer!
…..and 400 anti-gang US cops!
4 words: get Derek Haines back
And the killing would stop? What if it didn’t? Who would we turn to then? Who could we blame? Plenty Caymanians know exactly who is doing all this stuff but they will say nothing because of "family" and/or fear.
One word. Amen !
Two words. Sexist pig.
Who’s a sexist pig?? and you deduced all that from two words??
Is there any evidence that male pigs are sexist? Are you being piggist?
The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout ‘Save us!’….
And I’ll whisper …..NO’.