Police taking ‘Al Capone approach’ with robbery suspects

With reports of armed robberies the highest recorded in a decade, police say they are adopting new approaches to getting criminals off the streets, including arresting the suspects in the latest crime spree for non-robbery-related offences.

Since the start of 2022, police have received reports of 47 armed robberies, the most for such crimes in a decade and the third-most active year in recorded history.

This has led the top brass of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service to intensify their efforts to curb the increase in violent crimes during the Christmas shopping rush.

Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown said at a 19 Dec. press conference that the police are going to “take the ‘Al Capone approach’; we’ll take them for anything… we’ll lock them away”.

Lansdown was referring to notorious 1920s American gangster Al Capone, who had evaded the law for his violent crimes for years. He was finally arrested in 1931 and jailed for 11 years for failing to pay his taxes.

Because pinning the recent spate of robberies in Cayman on a specific suspect is proving difficult, given the amount of evidence needed to deliver a successful conviction, officers are now using whatever evidence they can find to get the suspects off the street.

So far, four people thought to be connected to the robberies have been arrested, police said.

One person who had been released on bail for an armed robbery, during which shots were fired, has been arrested after allegedly committing another robbery with a toy gun that broke apart after being used to hit a victim.

The other three suspects, in unrelated incidents, are in custody for charges other than robbery.

“[In] one of the cars recovered from the robbery we found proceeds from a burglary and that led to that person being charged and remanded into custody,” said Lansdown.

He added,”We charged him with one offence. I’m confident that he committed five, six, maybe 10 of the offences.”

Lansdown said by removing these individuals from the streets, police have been able to stem the spree of robberies, with more work ongoing to catch the other suspects.

More armed police on the streets

Acting Commissioner of Police Kurt Walton also spoke about organising an additional police presence at the press conference.

“We have twice as many armed units on the roads… we have collapsed some of our back offices to add extra police officers on shifts across all districts,” he said.

“We have executed well over six search warrants. In addition to that, we have stopped and searched multiple individuals involved in suspicious activities,” he said, adding that his officers have seized six cars, and are reviewing thousands of hours of CCTV footage to piece together the crimes.

Walton’s comments come on the heels of the most recent spate of robberies during which 12 incidents were reported over the past six weeks. Seven of the robberies were committed in George Town, two in West Bay, two along the Seven Mile Beach corridor and one in Bodden Town.

According to data from the police annual crime statistics, between 2002 and 2021, 333 robberies were reported in Cayman, averaging just over 33 a year.

Over the past decade, in 2014 the second highest number of robberies were recorded, at 46, one fewer than this year’s running total. However, the two highest incidences of robberies in recorded history were 67 and 64, in 2011 and 2010, respectively. Last year and 2020 tied for the lowest number for reported robberies with 16 each.

Of the 47 robberies so far this year, 32, or 68%, have been committed since August.

The perpetrators are thought to be part of three separate groups comprising up to 14 individuals, who are loosely affiliated, with three distinct targets – illegal lotteries, small commercial complexes and individuals. In two recent cases, however, masked men followed two women home after observing them using ATMs.

Although the criminals are believed to be known to each other, police say they are not operating as a gang and instead are carrying out “spontaneous robberies”.

While police are hesitant to name the suspects, they did say all the descriptions point to them being “local youth” in their early-to-mid 20s.

But despite knowing who they are, police say the suspects are becoming smarter, so that bringing them to justice is becoming increasingly difficult.

Criminals posing ‘a professional challenge’

“A lot of them are on bail,” said Lansdown, adding, “They learn our tactics, and that’s the problem. The more we arrest them, the more we prosecute them, the more they learn how we operate, and they try to avoid that. It’s a professional challenge – we are after them, they don’t want to get caught.”

He noted that these ‘smarter’ criminals have become aware of the need for “reconnaissance ahead of a robbery” and are prepared to frustrate the collection of DNA evidence.

“We get calls saying they are driving past looking at a premises first… we have stopped people but if they are doing reconnaissance [and] they’ve got nothing on them, then we have to let them go,” he said.

Police say the suspects also have a wide variety of resources at their disposal, including cars not registered to them, some of which are used with stolen licence plates.

“Two of [the cars] were probably associated with family members but we can’t make a family member tell us who got the car… we can arrest, we can interview but [because of] legal advice they don’t have to tell us anything,” said Lansdown, who added officers will eventually have to return the cars to those family members.

More detectives investigating

In addition to the increased visible police operations, the RCIPS has also redirected additional detectives to help with the mounting workload.

Ten detectives, who are scattered across George Town, Bodden Town and West Bay, are doing the brunt of the investigative work on the recent robberies, in addition to members from the Crime Task Force, bringing the total numbers up to 25 of the overall 50 detectives employed with the RCIPS.

“We’ve averaged that each of these incidents will require 40 or 50 hours of CCTV watching and logging for evidential purposes,” said Lansdown. “So that’s nearly 2,000 hours of CCTV footage the detectives are going through a bit at a time, and obviously some offences take priority over others, or they lead in different directions.”

With Christmas shopping under way, police are urging residents to carry on as normal but be mindful of their personal safety.

“Our Winter Guardian operation is all about safety during the Christmas season. Unfortunately, this year we have had to prioritise the robberies,” said Chief Inspector Brad Ebanks, was also at the press conference. “Don’t leave your hard-earned gifts in your car exposed. Be very cognisant of your surroundings… we are in a time right now where things are happening and we have to be cognisant about our personal safety.”

The increase in robberies resulted in Crime Stoppers offering a $25,000 reward for any information that would lead to a successful conviction. That amount has since been increased to $100,000 by government officials who called for the public to come forward to help put an end to the “fear and anguish in our community”.

Since the reward was launched on 16 Dec., no information had yet been provided to the RCIPS, but police did say that prior to that, they were receiving information that has helped with their ongoing investigations.

As police hunt the robbery suspects, they are calling on the community to come forward with information which can be submitted confidentially by calling the RCIPS Tip Line at 949-7777 or through the Cayman Crime Stoppers website caymancrimestoppers.com.