Police urge public to be aware of personal safety
(CNS): As the RCIPS continues its Christmas campaign to make the community safer on the roads, water, streets and at home, the focus this coming week will be on personal safety and awareness. Police said that while violent crime and street crime in the Cayman Islands is still rare, they want people to take action to enhance their own safety and be less likely to be a target of crime. Releasing a list of safety tips, Angelique Howell, Superintendent of District Operations, urged people to be aware of their surroundings and not to give criminals a chance.
“Often, because of the relatively low crime rate in Cayman, people can grow complacent about taking precautions to enhance their personal security,” Howell said. “But the important thing to remember is that thieves and robbers are opportunists, more than anything else, and we have to develop habits that deprive them of opportunities as much as possible.”
The police recommend the public consider the following tips, especially when carrying more cash or valuables around than usual as they do their holiday shopping:
- You’re safest in well-lit, busy areas.
- Try to look and act confident – look like you know where you are going and walk tall.
- Spread valuables around your body for example, keep your phone in your bag, your house keys in your trouser pocket and your money in your jacket.
- If you use a wheelchair, keep your things beside you rather than at the back.
- Try not to be conspicuous about valuables you are carrying. Talking loudly on your phone, carrying a lap top or showing your friend your new gold ring can give thieves the impression you are worth robbing.
- Keep your cards separate from your cheque book and cash.
- Never keep your personal identification number (PIN) and credit or debit card together.
- Record your serial number and your phone number. Keep these in a safe place separate from your phone. You can get your serial number by looking behind the phone battery.
- If your phone is stolen, report the phone and serial numbers to your network and the police as soon as possible.
- Keep doors locked when driving and keep bags, phones and other valuables out of sight.
- If someone tries to take something from you, it may be better to let it go rather than risk a confrontation and injury.
- You can use reasonable force in self-defense. You are allowed to protect yourself with something you are carrying for example keys or a can of deodorant, but you may not carry a weapon.
- If you decide to defend yourself, be aware that you attacker may be stronger than you, or may take what you are using in self defence and use it against you. It is often better just to shout loudly and run away.
- When out walking or jogging, you should not listen to a personal stereo through headphones, so you can stay more alert to your surroundings.
Category: Crime, Crime Prevention, Police
This is just lip service..they only doing a part of their job! They need to be more present instead of doing some other irrelevant foolishness or corrupt act! They get paid too dang good to sit on their derriers and write tickets to whoever they feel like , at the same time the real criminals getting away with their evil. Yes, it is true the foreign nationals we have ” to serve and protect” don’t want to do so because they don’t give a rats behind about crime in Cayman because then they won’t have a JOB anymore. Hence the b.s. “holiday safety tips”…we dhould protect ourselves from the “opportunist criminal(s) so they can relax in the station house and/or commit some immoral or corrupt act themselves. I’m not saying not to protect ourselves or belongings by picking sense out of the nonsense of what they are saying, but they need to do a better job of performing as Officers enforcing the law(s), so that the criminals might be deterred because they have someone to fear!!
How about this? When I call the police station or send my tips to crime stoppers. How about show up, search and arrest the ppl that I have described and given street addresses for. Plus they are known criminals in known high crime areas. Some -the leaders- are of high esteem and those need to be ousted first. Just show up. The longer you take to show up, then they will move all evidence of anything or anyone being there!
8.21 They can’t show up quickly..it takes time to call all the suspects up and tell them to hide the evidence. Good grief man, think of the paperwork if we actually had to do something and how much our unofficial salaries would reduce…
How about the Public urges the Police to reflect on their past failures and pledge to take a more visible and available approach at all times of the year? Nothing says “we’re on the job and available to serve” more than a basic functional traffic dept that everyone can see – enforcing the entire traffic code all the time. We’ve been asking for this. Please send the correct message to the criminal gangs and lawless actors that plague and endanger our resident and tourist product. Be available and dispersed logically in patrols in the community – to restore faith that an officer could be called upon and dispatched quickly to a nearby location to prevent tragedy and/or protect life, and property. 400 officers hanging out at HQ, coming out hours after crimes take place, like sleepy insurance adjusters – some without flashlights at night, does nothing to protect the community. We are just moments away from the annual “RCIPS are disappointed with the public” messages – crimes enabled by their very conspicuous and ordinary physical and mental absence. Applying the same failing crime-prevention policy year after year, the RCIPS expect a different result?
The police are just as fraudulent as others, perhaps more so. Why should I believe what they have to say? Did the dope stolen from lockup get returned? Call me when you know.
If the police are concerned about my safety, they can stop driving like other idiots on the island.
What a great shame we don’t have a decent police service with all the money we have spent ???? Paying for nothing but hassle from a bunch of incompetent inept and very corrupt foreign nationals who don’t give $#@! about this island.
What was the nationality of the officer recently convicted for corruption again?
1.03-Stop making this racist-if RCIPS deemed that person good enough to employ but got it wrong, then that is an issue for RCIPS to deal with. That there would seem to be parts of the service that are blatantly corrupt is for sure, and its time that maybe they downsized and paid better salaries to better officers. What alarms me more is that CIG is silent on this. Silence speaks louder than words.
Caymanian of course, this is why he was convicted. Not to say that it was not deserved, but do you think that he is the only corrupt cop, or are you ignorant to the fact they all of the foreigners are looking out for their own in their criminal activities? You get hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of drugs gone missing, obviously an inside job, not a squeek, but a Caymanian convicted for a cell phone. Sure, they’re all clean.
CNS – I put ‘anonymous’ and you still printed my name!!!!
CNS: If you want to remain anonymous, just leave the author details blank – putting “anonymous” in brackets somewhwere in the body of the comment won’t work unless I manually delete your name, however I may not notice (as in this case) and it takes up more time than I have for every comment. Your email will not be posted whether you fill it in or not but whatever you put in the block marked “name” will be public once the comment is posted. You can either leave it blank or use a pseudonym to post anonymously. I fixed this comment and your other one.
I posted a lot before that one and had no problem – I guess your instruction was presented in a confusing manner Tk u!
Best tips: RCIPS pls respond quicker. Collect better evidence. Protect info sources. Follow up. show up for court cases. Dont lose evidence & million$ in drugs from your lockup.
You have to defend yourself. Better safe than sorry but thank God we’re still safer than many places!
“Spread valuables around your body for example, keep your phone in your bag, your house keys in your trouser pocket and your money in your jacket.” In your jacket? It’s 90 degrees most of the year here… not too many people walking around in jackets!
Most of these bozos are so stoned you could hit them over the head with a 2×4 and they wouldn’t notice it. Forget homemade pepper spray – you’d need a taser or a couple of .40 S&W hollow-points to take them down. My advice is don’t carry anything valuable and if you have to walk the streets always keep a cheap wallet with $50-$100 in it handy to keep the muggers happy.
What does disturb me about this is the line that starts, ‘Keep doors locked when driving.’ When things get that bad CIG need to be considering bringing in a concealed carry law because if RCIPS need to offer advice like that they have clearly lost control of the streets and need some serious civilian back up.
Since the Police are broadcasting the ‘safety tips’ don’t they realize that the the criminal is also reading – so I guess we will have to find other places to hide our belongings!!
Oh, my God. Is this what some folks would have us appear? Is this our reality? Lord help us if this is so.
Quote, ‘Police said that while violent crime and street crime in the Cayman Islands is still rare’ – that’s horse pucky and RCIPS know it.
If any small town in the USA, Canada or the UK had the crime levels (particularly the use of firearms) we have it would be described as a crime wave.
Quick question if i just happen to carry a small spray bottle with cayanne pepper vinegar scotch bonnet peppers marinated for a few weeks and someone attacks or trys to and i spray them in the face (hopefully eyes and mouth) can i be charged with an offence or woukd that be self defense ??? Im serious i get scared just going for my morning walk. Can a officer / lawyer plse reply.
Please step in to my office, cough up $500 and I will tell you all you need to know in 3 minutes flat…
In short, you have manufactured an offensive weapon which technically is illegal to carry. Do dear in mind the criminal has a right to hold you at ransom by whatever means available and you don’t have the right to do anything that may harm or infringe on the human rights of your attacker whatsoever except in self defense.
Just do whatever you have to do to protect yourself. So if you’re unlucky enough to be a victim and your attacker is physically harmed because of what you do, or better yet dies then it comes down to your word and the jury and or judge whether a self defense plea flies in the face of you using and offensive weapon in your self defense.
Difficult to hide weapons here. People run a mile when they see what I got in my shorts. It’s not easy to conceal. Hangs out one trouser leg or another. Not been arrested yet.
Since its perfectly legal for the criminals to carry illegal weapons of any sort, you could use the home made spray, disable the criminal, take his weapon and kill him with it, then give it back to him. That way its still the criminals weapon and not yours.
Remain steadfast that you took the weapon from your assailant and used it in self defense in fear of your life.
There is nothing wrong with carrying a bottle of hot sauce. If that is the first thing you grab in self defense then no probes. You have a right to protect yourself. Perfume also has alcohol which stings eyes like crazy. Or aerosol deodorant and a lighter makes a nifty flame thrower…
Yes there is. It is carried with intent to use as a weapon.
no problem, if you carry your own “hot sauce” because you like to spray your food with it them burglar to be just had bad luck running into a “spice loving person”. try to refute that in a court of law..
Not if you are on your way to cook with it.