Cops to get first pay rise in 15 years
RCIPS officer at work
(CNS): Police officers in the Cayman Islands can look forward to receiving their first salary increase for more than fifteen years, the commissioner of police has confirmed after he managed to secure money from the home affairs ministry and keep a lid on recruitment. The last time that RCIPS officers had a raise in pay was iN 1999 but following salary increases for other law enforcement agencies, including the prison service and customs, during this financial year the wages of constables up to chief inspectors have also been subject to review.
CoP David Baines told CNS that the increase ranges from $3,000 to $5,000 per year depending on the grades, and the increase will, when it is confirmed, be backdated to July and the start of this financial year.
Getting the money to cover the raise was not easy, however, and Baines said that he is running the service with some 30 vacancies in order to cover the costs but he has also managed to secure around $400,000, which has been saved elsewhere within the ministry, which will secure the pay rise going forward and the backdated sum as well.
Baines said that the vacancies he has been forced to hold open are not always the same jobs that are vacant as a result of natural attrition. He said posts are left open or there is under-recruitment depending on the challenges at any given time, as he described juggling vacancies as “spinning plates”.
The pay rise, which he said had been a long time coming, was confirmed at a police meeting and awards event on Tuesday held at and paid for by the Westin Hotel.
“I have got some fantastic officers and I want them to be focused,” he said, but noted that there are a number of them who have second jobs to pay for their children’s education, which is an obvious problem. “The reality is that I have got officers who earn under $3,000 a month and this is a very expensive island to live on $3,000 a month.”
The commissioner said that the pay increases, which range from around $280 to $500 per month, won’t make a massive difference but it would allow them “to keep their heads above water”. But Baines said that there were strings attached to the pay rise, including improved professionalism and officers taking responsibility for their self-development, training and keeping abreast of new legislation.
“We cannot afford to keep dead wood. We have got to move people out if they are not meeting the standard,” he said, adding that now the RCIPS is going to be paying a better wage, there would be “expectations of professionalism”.
The commissioner said that the more competitive salary will help to stop the hemorrhaging to immigration, customs or the prison service, as is the case at the moment because those officers are paid more at present than police.
“If you are not going to offer a realistic wage, why do you expect Caymanians to come into the police service?” he asked, especially given the level of expectation on police, which he described as a complex and challenging job.
“The best we can do is make it a competitive salary and then I can demand more of people, otherwise I’m left with the people who could not get work elsewhere,” the commissioner added.
My litmus tests for police raises:
If my teen son smells of ganja do i know 2or 3 good cops and their tel numbers so i could ask them to have a talk with him?
If my teen daughter hangs out with gangstas which cop could i trust to talk to her?
I know a boy who eent to a station for help. They locked him up overnite.
I saw a teen girl walking in a subdivision being trailed and chatted up by a cop in car. I had to pick her up to help..and so many more cases i could say like thse.
The cops vulgar actions kill our respect and trust. But who would take action if we spoke up.
Boy..they sure luke to use the reverse psychology about locals cant police locals effectively.
Thats why the mainly give Locals tickets.
Their own people will only get the blighs.
Same thing right?!
If you think the police have it so easy and are paid so well- get yourself into the training and become an RCIP officer. If you don’t want to do that- stop complaining. One could not pay me enough to be an officer in these times with the level of crime, guns, knives, machetes, and disrespect that these officers face every day. I have the utmost respect for a member of any police force and that goes for firemen and woman also. I would not be brave enough to run into a burning building or pull someone out of a burning car. Utmost respect-
As an assistant teacher in the government system called upon to work longer hours than class teachers (though I regularly do their work), required to bring literacy levels up of students who qualified teachers can not help, told to basically do the job of every and all subject teachers, expected to offer pastoral care to students….the tip of the iceberg….I wonder why my salary is way under $3000 per month and why the heck I don’t just use my non-teaching degree to find another job? It’s dedication to our youth now but I see this running thin as expenses mount. Of course I could top up my degree with a bogus teaching degree from a local college as I work to support myself but teachers don’t do all that much better. ???
i couldn’t get a job…so i joined the police….
The matter is simple really, and some 20-30 years ago the UK faced the same dilemma, and had to resolve it. The issue being, is that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. We would probably not need 400 + officers if the base pay was CI $30,000 for probation officer, CI$40,000-$45,000 for Constable and much more as you progress. The officers would stop worrying about how to live (and as a sideline stop taking bribes as they have no need) and take pride in becoming a professional police force. If we paid the right amount to attract quality officers we could probably reduce the numbers of officers substantially and have a force willing to do its job properly.
I don’t think your reading the article there. Customs gets paid overtime. Immigration and customs are not working 24hrs. Try calling immigration enforcement after 8pm and see the response u get, or when migrants arrives at night. Prison officers start@ $3100. Starting for a police constable is less than $2700. All civil servants were awarded a 4% COLA. Can you live off that? Get your facts straight Number 1.
Dont cops work 4 days on and 4 days off or something like that?
I don’t get it! Police is always getting a raise of pay. Since when did you hear Immigration or Custom departments getting raise? They make chicken fee compared to police and are lacking proper equipment. Yet Immigration and Customs get all the negative flack from the public, and it is these agencies that are protecting the borders. We complain of illegals being here, yet an border officers salary starts off with about 32000 annusl. No monies pump into these agencies, but you will a police service who has 165 work permit holders salary increase.
Mmmm smh … government need to do better 🙂
Immigration staff got a nice pay raise late last year and Customs just got theirs recently. Now did they deserve it? I plead the 5th.
Something tells me that you don’t get out much.
But the civil servants are overpaid. That is what CNS posters have been saying for years. Now we fins out our cops don’t make 3k pm. Wow I know entry level posts in the overpaid private sector that is paid more than that. Beat up on the civil service and complain complain is getting really boring folks how about a few thousands dollars donated from the private sector fat cats to fund the crime prevention programme
Yeah brain wave, that kind of thinking worked so well for the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea! The quality of your comments leads me to conclude that you could not be leader of the revolution, so just be careful what you wish for!
People say cops today are not efficient like the ones of yester years but we also did not have these type of criminals many years ago. Nowadays, the women are stealing from employers rampantly, the drug dealers are getting younger and younger, the rapists are the boy next door etc…. They say to catch a thief you have to think like one.
It’s “WHO” in the Civil Service your focus should be on. You do have alot hard workers on a low wage, working for government. Its those on the top you need to look at.
Deserved for the cops excellent work. Now how about the better salaries of the litter n garbage collectors of cayman civil service?
Yup … what about garbage collectors and getting a new dump??? Have Dart cap it off and expand Camana project, but noooo … we have Bodden district opposing and the whole island suffers.
BTW … No raise for our teachers?
Rumour has it that Master ‘Pretty Boy’ is all upset that he didn’t get to make the announcement.
can somebody first please justify the number of police we have for a population of 60,000???????
Sorry only the UK can explain that unreasonable and outrageous figure which justifies their presence here and whom they have imported to work here speaks to their real agenda for these little islands! What I can tell you it is the highest per capita in this hemisphere.
165 of them are work permit holders, whilst Caymanians are out of job. And HSA has over 200 work permits approved. Education Department over 170. And we’re still dissing our own, saying Caymanians are not qualified and they should go to the UK.
Yet you have workers here who make chicken fee, have the prevelege of sending their monies through money gram converting it to big monies in their countries. Caymanians don’t have that prevelege in a high cost of living country like ours, and they are accused for being lazy for not taking the low-end jobs! Yet no support from our own who are living it high.
Whine, whine, whine. How much is a ‘chicken fee’? ‘prevelege’? Monies make the world go around…
Imagine that, furriners sending money back from their earnings (big monies?) to their countries.
You do realise that this practice is revered and held as historically important to Caymians, as many raced off ships to send their pay back to Cayman. Once they had built a house, bought the land, etc many stopped, left ships and returned to Cayman to enjoy the fruits of their money sent home.
Remittances sent back built Cayman and Caymanians had this privilege long before expats did in Cayman.
Even now, pensions from shipping companies such as United Bulk Carriers are depended on by Caymanians, even more foreign money sent overseas to Cayman.
Not only is your post hypocritical, it is ill informed and smacks of a naivety bred by ignorance and racism.
You are right to feel a little stupid right now.
Actually I’m proud Caymanian and represent a large % of people here who are struggling to make ends me. 🙂
I just love it, your remarks are just as expected, complain, complain, blame teachers for the education failures, blame cops for crime, blame expats for crime in communities, blame expats for taking away jobs for locals/ social ills.
Whine about ppl working and sending their money home, wth is wrong with you all. You honestly believe you live in a cocoon where the problems occurring are unique to this country alone.
Have you volunteered as a special constable to first hand experience what happens? Bet you the answer is no.
Ok, so we reward our police officers who managed to have how many pounds of cocaine mysteriously disappear …….from their possession at the f%@#ing police station!! Not to mention all the crime from petty to significant that they can never solve or pin on the right person. Ah boy, the idiocy of our government continues. These Popo´s ain´t loyal!
Why is the RCIP getting a pay raise when they are the most incompetent at their jobs. I mean really? You would think an eternal investigation would be top priority after the stunt they pulled…. but nooo they get a pay raise. They don’t even do their job and their getting a pay raise. The CIG is a joke. They can only afford to pay one jamaican in some uniform to guard our children in our schools but they can give a raise of pay to these incompetent Royal Cayman Islands Police? That is nonsense. This is disgraceful.
An ‘eternal’ investigation is what is needed for your comment. LOL How many jamaicans in ‘some’ uniform do you need to guard your children at school?
The only loyalty by all in these islands is to money and nothing else.
You ever wondering how our government thrives on failure This PPM government are a horrendous bunch of dreamers ??
Paying our teachers who stop ignorance and educated our society is a far better investment for the future of these islands than paying those who are merely here to enrich themselves by imprison bodies and minds for a short periods time. But we must understand that is their real agenda for this little island in the first place 56% of the local population are convicted persons????
Is this the same home affairs ministry that can’t find funds to support a crime prevention programme for youths? This country priorities have never been clearer.
I listened to a clip on Tv last evening where the COP mentioned that he did not get the money from government but hard to dig into his own budget to find the funds to offer the pay rise and it left me wondering where did he get his budget if not from government coffers. Why would the COP try to throw the Government under the bus with this, when they as well as us have been putting up with his failures over the years. I appreciate the “hard working cops” some of them are real professionals and on top of their jobs but we all know some are not, however I am pleased to see that this story now says that the money for the pay rise was approved by Cabinet. Mr. COPin future please pick and speak your words with truth and clarity.
11.39 in the matter of Regina versus 11.39 the crown finds you incompetent to comment and binds you over to refrain from doing so in future.
the good 10% deserve fair pay…the rest are a waste of space….
just like all other parts of the civil service….a very bad reflection on a predominatly caymanian workforce…….
Fantastic, maybe now they’ll have more incentive to do something about my ex constantly harassing me.
Cayman funding it’s own demise and paying for failure! Instead of putting money in to education for our people we chose to pay off a law enforcement apparatus fill up foreign nationals who are clearly undermining our little society and have their very own agenda. This is the real problem that is causing the hemorrhaging. The deadwood he is referring to are those who come here to do very little but advance their own countries economic agenda and their own and those locals who sit by and allow or support it in order to keep their jobs. Which is indeed complex and challenging?? Have we got a plausible explanation yet about the missing Cocaine from George Town central police Station?
Agree, we can either fix out education or fix our prisons- OUR choice. The sad fact of Cayman and all Caribbean nations is that the politicians have learned (and love) the fact that if they keep their own people down & dumb, the will always get voted in. They have learned this Red/Blue 2-choice game and we are stupid sheep for relying on their handouts. Nothing will improve until we stand on our own feet and say NO to entitlement and reliance on social services.
A sad state of affairs, but true. With less than 75,000 population, swift changes should take weeks, not decades! If YOU are a political party member looking for favour, then YOU are part of the problem.
no issue with pay rise…but i have an issue with the number of officers in the force and their general incompetence…..
Teachers DID not get pay rises. Money can’t be found from the budget as education funds have been wasted…well, you know where!
Mmmmm, low salaries would explain a lot.
What? If you have info or a complain donot hesitate to forward it in for dew consideration.
Is “dew consideration” when you p$-s on it in the morning?