Since the start of the month, 30 people have been arrested for DUI offences – with one driver having returned a reading of more than five times the new drink-driving limit.
“There were 29 arrests for the offence of driving under the influence of alcohol along with one arrest for being in charge of a vehicle whilst under the influence of alcohol,” said a media officer for the police.
“Of these arrests, one was under .100 on the roadside breath test but was released from custody following the evidential test which read below .070.”
The arrests were made during the police’s annual road safety campaign, Operation Winter Guardian, which began on 1 Dec. and runs through to the new year.
According to police, the highest reading recorded for the month so far was .374 – with eight others having provided readings of over .210.
Under the amendment to the Traffic Act, which came into force in October, the blood-alcohol limit for drivers is now 70 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, or 0.07%, bringing it closer to the worldwide average of 0.06%.
The arrests for DUI are a part of a number of recent arrests made by police in an attempt to stamp out a spike in violent crimes.
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.
“We can say that, so far this month, there have been over 150 arrests made, of which there were [five] robbery arrests, four firearms related arrests, two wounding arrests, two burglary arrests, 16 drugs related arrests and six theft related arrests,” said police.
“So far five arrests for robberies have been made,” said police. “Four of the arrests are from the group of robbers discussed at the [recent press] conference and the other was in relation to the Cayman Brac robbery incident.”
Police say all five men arrested in relation to the robberies have since been released on bail.
The RCIPS said it had launched a full-scale response to the recent increase in crime, and that there had been no robberies reported during the Christmas weekend.
“Our investigators have been working diligently on these robbery investigations and all our officers have been doing their part, through Operation Winter Guardian and other operational strategies, to provide high visibility patrols, increase the presence of firearm officers in the various districts and execute search warrants that have led to arrest for robberies and various other crimes,” police said in their statement.
The RCIPS spokesperson added, “We encourage the public to report incidents and follow through with providing statements so that we can persist in these efforts and provide justice for the community, but especially those who were directly affected.”
The government and Cayman Crime Stoppers are jointly offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to a successful prosecution in relation to the robberies.
Anyone with information on the recent crime spree is urged to contacting the RCIPS using its online ‘submit a tip’ form, which can be done anonymously; or by calling the RCIPS confidential tipline at 949-7777 where callers can leave an anonymous voicemail. People can also submit tips to Cayman Crime Stoppers on the website caymancrimestoppers.com and it will be shared with the RCIPS without identifying the source.
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“Police say all five men arrested in relation to the robberies have since been released on bail.”
Released on bail to carry on robbing people or to intimidate witnesses.
Why are they being released on bail? Just recently a bailed criminal fled the island.