Local

Poll: Fingerprint more than expats

19 November 2010

More than 61 per cent of the 588
respondents to last week’s caycompass.com online poll think that fingerprinting
only foreign workers will not lead to a reduction in crime in the Cayman Islands.

The largest segment of voters – 205
people or 34.9 per cent – thinks there would be a reduction in crime only if
the government fingerprinted everyone.

“The entire population should be
fingerprinted and DNA collected to create a database that has all the information
to help us eradicate crime,” said one person. “If you’re not a criminal, then
who cares if they have your prints.”

“If the idea is that it’s mainly
expatriates committing crimes, then Cayman is deluding itself,” said another
respondent. “If they want to start fingerprinting people, then they should
fingerprint everyone, Caymanians included.”

“It will work 50 per cent because
they will miss the Caymanian robbers,” said someone else.

- Advertisement -

“Apply the law equally to our own
as a start,” commented another person.

The second largest segment of
respondents – 155 people or 26.4 per cent – thought fingerprinting only foreign
workers wouldn’t reduce crime because the wrong people would be fingerprinted.

“Most of the crimes here are
committed by born Caymanians,” said one person.

“As far as I am aware, one of the
requirements to gain entry here to Cayman Islands to be gainfully employed, is
to produce a recent police certificate of character, and to gain one of these
you must be fingerprinted or have some on file,” said another respondent. “So I
see this focus as a waste of time and resources. I need not say anymore if you
take another look at the imprisonment statistics that were published not so
long ago.”

“They need to start treating
everyone the same on this Island,” said someone
else.

Another large segment of
respondents – 126 people or 21.4 per cent – thought fingerprinting foreign
workers would absolutely reduce crime.

“But to be fair, good, honest
foreign workers who want to stay need to be given a fair and timely hearing,”
said one person.

“They should have done so a long
time ago,” said someone else.

“I think they should fingerprint
everyone,” said one advocate for the measure. “If you’ve got nothing to hide,
then it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Eighty-eight people – 14.9 per cent
– thought that fingerprinting foreign workers would result in a little reduction
in crime, but not much.

“This is racial profiling,” said
one person. “That is what you call it when any group is singled out over others
to undergo further security measures. Human rights? Not in Cayman, apparently.
Fingerprint everyone or no one. The reality is, the expats are working, so
don’t really need to commit the types of crimes being committed, so fingerprinting
just them is not going to help much in the end.”

“Fingerprinting may not reduce
crime, but will make it easier to identify the guilty,” said someone else.

“The point of fingerprinting is not
directly to reduce crime, but to allow for cases of crime to be solved more
easily,” agreed another person.

“It would not reduce crime much
because 99 per cent of the crimes are committed by Caymanians,” said one respondent.

Fourteen people – 2.4 per cent –
responded “I don’t know” to the question.

“I am waiting patiently to see if
the system works in Miami,
where every person is fingerprinted,” said one person.

“Criminals still watch television,”
said another respondent. “I’m sure they know about gloves.”

“Absolutely not,” said someone
else. “I wonder why that wasn’t a possible answer to the question!”

Next week’s poll question

Who do you think should be the next
PPM leader?

Alden McLaughlin

Arden McLean

Anthony Eden