A senior Cayman police officer on Thursday warned armed robbers that detectives would hunt them down and arrest them.
Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown, a veteran officer in charge of crime investigation, said, “I think they are scared of being caught and quite rightly.
“They should be – we’re after them.”
Lansdown made the pledge after two incidents in the space of a several hours – a lunchtime gun robbery at Kay’s jewellery store in George Town on Saturday, 16 Aug., which netted a “significant” amount of cash and valuables, and a raid later that evening on a pharmacy in West Bay by a machete-wielding masked man, who escaped with cash.
He added that extra police resources, including undercover officers and high-profile firearms units, had been deployed to “hot spot” areas during peak times for offending.
“We target, we call them hot spot locations, where the offences are generally happening. George Town centre is a hot spot, West Bay is currently a hot spot as well,” Lansdown said.
“So our firearms resources, our community police resources, are default patrols. When response officers aren’t rushing around on 911 calls and aren’t answering calls for service, their default patrols are in the hot spot areas, so we increase the police presence.”
Lansdown added that community police officers also visited businesses to give advice on how they could increase security and deter criminals.
He also highlighted that use of a firearm to commit a robbery attracted a mandatory 10-year jail term and robbery itself could see offenders behind bars for up to 14 years.
Lansdown said there had been about nine robberies involving firearms or machetes in the past two months and the service took them seriously.
He added, “We’ve made, I think, five arrests in the last few months. We’ve charged three people with a series of robberies earlier in the year, so they have been charged and are in custody.
“We have bailed one other person and we’ve got lots of lines of inquiry that are ongoing.”
He added detectives had several “irons in the fire” in connection with the two latest incidents.
Lansdown explained major inquiries involved trawling through hours of CCTV footage and matching descriptions to suspects.
He added, “So just trust us – it takes a long time, but we do get there.”
Lansdown said, “We’ve got a reasonable history of arresting and charging the right people for these offences. We have got various lines of inquiry.
“Obviously, CCTV is one of our main lines of inquiry and I just would encourage all commercial premises and residential houses, please install the best CCTV you can afford and make sure it’s maintained.
“We do find on occasion that equipment is not properly maintained and the quality of the images detracts from our investigations.”
He added that buzzer entry, although not foolproof, had also proven to be an effective crime-fighting tool.
Lansdown said, “We have already encouraged businesses to install buzzers so that you can stop people coming in and allow who you want to come in.”
He dismissed the idea that Cayman was in the grip of a crime wave and that criminals had become confident that they would escape, even after daylight robberies in the centre of George Town.
“We have always had occasional offences like this. Obviously, when the shops are open, they are targeted,” Lansdown said.
He added criminals were “very aware and very concerned about police intervention”.
“They might plan a little bit more, but I don’t think that makes them bolder,” Lansdown said.
A spokesman for Kay’s on Thursday called for a much stronger police presence on the streets of the capital, especially during business hours.
He highlighted George Town was a tourist magnet and armed robberies dented Cayman’s reputation as a safe place to visit.
The spokesman said it was luck that there were no customers in the store when the raid happened, but an overseas visitor had left minutes before the robbers struck.
He added if the customer had still been in the store, it would have had severe consequences.
The spokesman said, “Seriously, that would have created a big negative buzz about the island then because when tourists, when an outsider, experiences something like this, it’s very bad for the island.”
A spokesman for West Bay Pharmacy at Centennial Towers on George Town’s West Bay Road relived the shock of the raid, which happened Saturday at about 7:30pm, and said the police response time was good.
He said, “They were there quickly, within minutes. The staff was shaken by the incident, but no one was hurt, thank God.”
Compass video journalist Philipp Richter contributed to this article.
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