Some North Side residents have stopped reporting offences to police, independent Member of the Legislative Assembly for that district Ezzard Miller has told lawmakers.
During a parliamentary debate on the budget during which the latest crime statistics that show a drop in serious crime was discussed, Mr. Miller said people in North Side were not impressed by the police response and were “no longer bothering to report crimes to the police”.
He cited a case in which he said a person, caught “red-handed” with a weapon inside another person’s house, was charged with criminal trespass instead of aggravated burglary and given nine months of community service.
“I know for a fact that the crime in the district I represent is being under-reported… because they have no faith in the police taking proper action with the crime. I encourage them to report it,” Mr. Miller said.
He said anonymity when reporting offences did not seem guaranteed and constituents had complained to him that when they made a report, police told other people that they had done so.
“It happened to me personally,” said Mr. Miller who went on to recount an incident in which he said he had recently reported a person “setting up shop” on the side of a road. When he came back to the location later, the person about which he had made the report came to him and asked why he had called the police. He said he believed the only way the person could have known who had made the report was if police had disclosed the information.
He said that the governor had lamented in his Throne Speech last month that public confidence in the police remains elusive. “I wonder why,” Mr. Miller said.
Police statistics for the first four months of 2011, released last month, showed that burglaries had fallen by 41 per cent and aggravated burglaries by 75 per cent, compared to the same period in 2010. Overall crime fell by just more than 27 per cent during the period, and total serious crimes dropped by 36 per cent. However, robberies rose by 125 per cent in the first four months of this year.
Responding to comments by Mr. Miller and members of the opposition on the state of crime in the Cayman Islands in a speech in the Legislative Assembly on Monday, Premier McKeeva Bush said much had been done to help combat crime, including more police recruitment, rehabilitation of offenders and the appointment of probation officers to offenders at the point of sentencing, among other initiatives.
“I hope that what the Member from North Side said is not so. That means that people know something and are not telling police,” said Mr. Bush.
He urged members of the public to contact police about crimes about which they had information.
“Those people that are terrorising this country, somebody knows what they are doing. I’m not going to say they should not tell the police,” the premier said.
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I am sure someone knows what they are doing, most likely the RCIPS themselves. When someone reports a Crime to an officer who is most likely kin to or a family friend of the Crook, you can bet that they will find out who reported them which put them in a position to retaliate. All this does is make people think that the safety and well being of Cayman Criminal Element is more important to the lawmakers and enforcers then the public safety is. This is obvious by the type of sentences people get for committing crimes in Cayman, which now has a reputation of not only a tax haven but a haven for the Criminal element. It’s a known fact that if you report a crime especially if you are a foreigner that you’ll be mistreated by the RCIPS. I myself tried once to report someone breaking in my rental car but the response I got from the police was more about checking my credentials and grilling me about my passport than asking anything about the break-in, they also accused me a trying to file a fake report to file a fraudulent insurance claim, I was also told that it was a waste of time to ask for a police report. No wonder people aren’t bothering to report crimes, it’s surely because they know that victims reporting crimes is more aggravating to the police than the crimes themselves.
If Ezzard can see what is happening in this country why cant anyone else understand it. This commentary is indicative of many districts and the residents mindset. There is no confidence in the police to resolve the issues.