Cayman Islands police, fire and ambulance services appear to have been quite a bit busier during the last six months, according to statistics provided by the 911 Emergency Centre.
Between July 2011 and October 2011, all three emergency services showed an increase in the number of calls they received when compared with the same period in 2010. According to 911 records, calls for police service increased by about 15 per cent; calls for ambulance service increased about 20 per cent and fire response calls went up 32 per cent between July and October.
Figures for November and December responses weren’t included in the 911 figures, but Cayman Islands EMS Director Stephen Duval said it appeared calls for the last two months of the year were evening out a bit. Figures for November and December 2011 weren’t immediately available for the police service or fire.
Large increases in calls for service were seen on the fire side in July 2011, when the service received 61 calls compared to July 2010 when it received just 42.
The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service saw its largest increase in calls during September 2011, with a massive 776 calls for service compared with 598 calls for service in September 2010. The 776 calls for service in September works out to about 25 or 26 police calls per day. It was the largest volume of calls the police service had received in any one month in more than two years.
The ambulance service saw a 34 per cent increase in calls during August 2011, when medics responded to 274 calls for service compared with 219 in August of 2010.
The pronounced increase in ambulance calls between July and October 2011 didn’t translate throughout the entire year, according to Mr. Duval.
He said between January and December 2011, there was an overall 3 per cent increase in calls for ambulance service when compared with the full 12 months of 2010.
However, it is a bit unusual to see that much activity among the emergency services during Cayman’s late fall to early spring.
“Our highest call volumes usually occur between October and March,” Mr. Duval said.
There are a number of reasons calls for ambulance service could increase, from the number of visitors in Cayman at any given time to the lifestyle choices made by residents, so it’s difficult to pin down the reason for emergency call increases.
“There are a number of factors and its variable,” he said.
Police stops
Records from the 911 Emergency Centre also indicated the number of RCIPS vehicle stops so far in the government’s current budget year had declined significantly during previous years.
For instance, in October 2011 emergency services recorded 265 vehicle stops made by police.
In October 2010, that number of stops was 531 and in October 2009 there were 560 stops recorded. Total 911 call statistics for the first half of the current government budget year weren’t available because the service was upgrading its computer system.
The vast number of calls 911 receives are still either non-emergency reports or abandoned/hang-up calls. In 2009/10, those calls amounted to more than 90 per cent of the calls the emergency services centre received.
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