Opposition members raise questions over police funding

Opposition members questioned Acting Deputy Governor Gloria McField-Nixon over police funding in Parliament on Friday, with former Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly saying that “evaporation has occurred” of previously allocated funds.

The issue arose following a tabled question from MP for Red Bay Roy Tatum, who asked if the deputy governor could confirm “whether the commissioner of police intended to strengthen and enhance the operational capacity of the community policing department”.

Fund constraints

McField-Nixon said that the commissioner fully intended to do that, but added that this “needed to be balanced against several critical resourcing challenges, including fund constraints that have impacted the ability to scale operations at pace”, adding, “Despite these constraints, I wish to assure this honourable house that community policing is central to the commissioner’s long-term operational vision.”

There are currently 19 community officers deployed across the Cayman Islands, she said, with plans to increase the team to 36, an increase of 17 officers.

The mention of fund constraints prompted a follow-up question from Opposition Deputy Leader Kenneth Bryan, who asked whether the “substantial” $7.7 million approved in Cabinet in March by the previous government was going to be put towards the new hires.

After conferring with the commissioner, McField-Nixon said she could confirm that RCIPS had received prior approval through section 11.5 of the Public Finance and Management Act of $1.9 million in funding.

“There is additional funding for the hiring of additional officers that is proposed to be sought by way of section 12, but that is still an internal process [and] there’s been no determination on that matter,” she said, later adding that this would cost around $1.5 million.

Bryan then asked if that additional funding was necessary for the new hires, which McField-Nixon confirmed it was.

This led former Premier O’Connor-Connolly to ask whether McField-Nixon could confirm that “the last Cabinet approved $12 million for 77 or 79 policemen and how much of that is making its way through Cabinet for community policing?” adding, “As a part of the preview, the $12 million was a consideration thereof, so perhaps that could be a part of the response to see where the evaporation has occurred.”

McField-Nixon said in response that $1.9 million had been approved and was in use by the police, but that additional funds had not been given Cabinet approval, saying, “It is not a decision that has been recorded and given to RCIPS as having been approved to date.”

Cabinet minutes

O’Connor-Connolly answered, “Though the temptation is great with the multiplicity of questions that flow from that answer, I’ll restrain myself to one. … Can the honourable member confirm when she refers to government, that is not the past government [but] that is the current government who has not made the processing possible with the $12 million, because the last government approved it and the Cabinet minutes would, therefore, reflect it?’

The back-and-forth ended with McField-Nixon saying that they would provide the answer in writing, “to make sure that we are not providing information that could be in any way deemed misleading”.