Police chief claims ‘Al Capone approach’ is making Cayman safer

Cayman is using the ‘Al Capone’ approach as one of its tactics in going after violent criminals, according to police chief Kurt Walton.

Referencing the infamous Chicago gangster, who evaded crimefighters for years before being jailed for tax evasion, the commissioner said his officers were using the same tactics to go after known gunmen in Cayman.

He said the policy was paying dividends and claimed that in several cases, the people responsible for unsolved, violent crimes were now behind bars for other offences.

He cited the “watershed” mass shooting at Ed Bush stadium, in which seven people were injured last February, as one example.

“I am very confident that we have the individual or individuals involved in that and they’re currently in prison,” he said, suggesting the shooters had been jailed for other offences.

He acknowledged the specific offence itself may never be solved.

But he said police had successfully pursued the suspected shooters on other charges and taken “dangerous persons” off the street.

Commissioner Walton, speaking on Compass TV’s Forefront, said the same applied to a number of violent robberies.

In cases where witnesses are afraid to testify or the evidence is not there to tie a suspect to a specific robbery, police have investigated and charged them with firearms offences or other charges.

“We take the Al Capone approach,” he said.

“Perhaps we can’t get them for robbery, perhaps we can get them for other types of crimes.”

He said police had successfully charged and convicted a number of people for firearms offences who they believed were responsible for a string of robberies. 

The crime they are sentenced for often represents just a fraction of their wrongdoing, but taking them off the streets, whether for one offence or for 10, provides the best outcome for the community, he said.

Walton also doubled down on his promise from last year to go after the “merchants of evil”, who he believes are fuelling much of the violent crime in Cayman by profiting from the import of guns and drugs.

He believes at least one of those individuals has been successfully investigated by police and will face firearms charges soon.

“That is a phrase I coined on the basis that these are individuals that are not necessarily out there in the middle of the gang activity, but they are facilitating the movement of guns,” he said.

“They’re using it as a business opportunity to continue to fuel this scourge of gun violence that we see in our islands. … For me they’re equally as culpable as a person who pulls the trigger.”

Police have confiscated 44 weapons since the start of 2023. Ballistics experts traced the source of those weapons.

“I can tell you that six of those 44 guns that we’ve seized are connected to crimes in Jamaica where 13 human beings lost their lives. The other 34 guns came directly from the United States, because there’s no connection that they were ever used by criminals in Jamaica or anywhere else,” he said.

Walton added that police have also seen guns imported from Brazil and Honduras, among other locations. He insisted, despite a lull in gang murders in recent years, that Cayman was not taking its finger off the pulse and was focusing more than ever on border security.