Efficiency key in crime budget

(CNS): With the passage of the government’s 2013/14 budget in the Legislative Assembly, Wednesday, questions about value for money over the $32 million allocated to the police remain. With the eastern district MLAs demanding greater coverage and all political representatives wanting more high profile visible policing, the commissioner has blamed a reduced budget and the high demand for services in George Town and West Bay for his limited ability to deploy more police. Cayman’s new governor, who has considerable experience managing police budgets, said the RCIPS expenditure allocation cannot be constantly increased and there is a need to review how efficient the police are and whether money could be spent more wisely to free-up existing resources for front line crime fighting.

Governor Helen Kilpatrick said she agreed with the premier, whose ministry now carries the can for the financing of the RCIPS, that pouring money into the RCIPS is not a sustainable solution.

“These are difficult economic times and, like all public sector expenditure, we cannot keep increasing the police budget,” the governor told CNS Thursday.

Over the years there has been significant investment in the RCIPS, especially in technology and key equipment, such as the helicopter, CCTV and automatic number plate recognition, she noted.  That investment was now beginning to pay dividends following the recent arrests and convictions where the helicopter and CCTV were instrumental.

But Kilpatrick pointed to the need for deeper and greater efficiencies in the RCIPS that would see the money given to finance policing better utilized. Although she felt it was not easy to make a comparison with other police services because the RCIPS had a border control remit among other issues, she said the service was nevertheless substantially funded. As a result, she said, there would be opportunities to improve the efficiency with the use of technology, better allocation of staff and e-government.

Now that the governor’s office shares responsibility for the police with the elected arm of government, Kilpatrick said that she and Premier Alden McLaughlin were committed to reviewing how money was spent.

Obvious solutions, she said, were to examine the broad remit of the RCIPS and ensure qualified and specialist police officers were not filling in forms or undertaking administrative tasks that could be done by civilian staff. Kilpatrick also pointed to fixed penalties for all road offences and digitalizing other services, such as criminal records work and licensing of various entities.

The governor said that the promotion of e-government was going to be major theme during her time here, as it meant a reduction in cost for the public purse and a reduction in wasted time for customers. The police, she said, would be part of the move to online services too. As more administrative police work went online, more cash could be directed at the crime fight, she noted.

Committed to improving how the $32 million given to the police is spent without touching operations or the independence of the commissioner, Kilpatrick also spoke about more transparency and the need for the police to be much more open about what they do. She said the public has a right to know how funds are spent and Kilpatrick said she believed that the police could reveal considerably more about their work without compromising operations.

She pointed to the impact that pictures recently published from the police helicopter can have in terms of reassuring the community.

“The public is reassured by seeing the police in action,” she said, adding that showing  officers working hard on the frontline of crime and that money invested in equipment was paying dividends was part of the RCIPS' remit of policing by consent and it was important for the public to see what they consent to.

Acknowledging the much wider social problems impacting crime and policing, as well as the backlogged courts system and the pressing need for a new courthouse, Kilpatrick said there was still a lot to do to tackle crime outside of the RCIPS. She pointed to a need for a wider more collaborative long tern approach. The governor said there had to be more coordination in the community with the police, the courts, rehabilitation of prisoners and buy-in from the private sector to help ex-offenders find work in order to make future cost savings by addressing the causesof crime.

Nevertheless, in the short to medium term, she said, there would be efficiencies made in the existing budget allocation that would help the commissioner redirect the money to where it is needed most on the front line crime fight.