The need for pro-active police action

| 05/02/2016 | 18 Comments

Cayman News ServiceGeorge R. Ebanks writes: Recently there have been repeated incidents of female joggers being sexually assaulted along our roads as they took time out for their personal leisure and exercise. This must not be left un-noticed and without proactive police action. I have written numerous times of the pervasive and creeping nature of crime and the position that, if left unattended, it will fester like a cancer and invade our places of privacy and comfort.

With our joggers, now more frequently than before, taking advantage of our nice streets and the jogging paths provided on them for the purposes of an early morning jog or walk, it is incumbent on our law enforcement arm of government to provide adequate safety and security for its citizens.

Certainly good old fashioned community policing would go a long way to address this matter of having female joggers being attacked by some assailant springing out of bushes and the like and assaulting them. Certainly the RCIPS can devise a working schedule for its officers that account for the fact of our early morning joggers being out on the roads and have sufficient police officers on duty to either place some on “foot patrols” or even driving around, slowly, to the most frequented jogging trails and foot-paths.

What is most alarming about the most recent incidents is the total nonchalant attitude taken by our police relative to issuing any advisory notices or cautions to other female joggers immediately after these incidents happened, nor did they take any corrective action to curtail the problem or remedy the situation.

Consider that in the latest spate of assaults, no police notice as to their actual occurrences was issued until about a week after the events.

Clearly this is not acceptable. If the assailant was a serial perpetrator, he could have endangered many other innocent and unknowing joggers by that time. However, what I found quite appealing in the press release that was issued, albeit far too late, by the RCIPS, was the suggestion by them that perhaps it would be in order for women joggers to exercise with a second person for their own safety.

Does that mean that our police service is hapless in this matter? Does that mean that they have no solution to find the idiot who is doing this?

What I also find most amusing is whenever an incident happens, the first reaction of our police service is for people to call the telephone number at police headquarters or, better still, call the Miami-based call centre of Crime Stoppers (TIPS).

Up to the time of my penning this article, no follow-up press release has been forthcoming from the RCIPS advising that they had caught this criminal or they had devised a credible plan to apprehend him.

Come on, RCIPS! The Cayman Islands are known as a “joggers’ paradise”. Many of our 485,000 annual stay-over visitors crave our weather to jog. Why should they not be able to? I am of the firm view that all women joggers should be permitted and indeed encouraged to purchase and carry pepper-spray with them as they jog and hopefully also their cell phone, so that they can be the one calling 911 to request police to attend to a certain location to collect an idiot who sprang out of the bushes and assaulted them and that now that same idiot was incapacitated and needing formal arresting and charges laid.

It is of great urgency that our police hierarchy come up with a credible solution to this problem and one that allows all of our female joggers to jog whenever they wish, be it alone or with a friend or companion if they themselves so wish, and not forced to be the ones inconvenienced by being advised by our police to find jogging partners and others to accompany them for their own safety.

It is high time for the RCIPS to be more proactive and to stop shunning their constitutional responsibility to ensure safety and security to all of our citizens.

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Category: Crime, Police, Viewpoint

Comments (18)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The police are a joke here. Absolutely no community interaction unless they see a friend to shout at through the window of their car with AC on blast.

  2. Anonymous says:

    He should have a column. “I’m George and I am going to spout about things I know little about”. This week “Policing”.

  3. Anonymous says:

    All vote for George! Once elected he can become as useless as the rest of them!

  4. Allar says:

    If the police had a clue they would get a couple of there own female offices send them jogging in the area and seek to arrest this pervert end of story. However it seems like the term covert doesn’t exist in RCIPS anymore but then the blind is being led by the blind.

  5. Anonymous says:

    A degree in criminology from the University of Life to go with his status as an economics guru?

  6. Anonymous says:

    Poor once again on the RCIP. Check a more current story. A rapist was on the loose, raped a woman and they did not want anyone to know as it would ad to the list of sex crimes that are racking up. Public interest outweighs any operation that the Police may but probably were not engaging.
    Pepper spray is ok but in all actuality when a woman is under the threat of rape the option of deadly force to protect herself should be allowed. Mario while the option of Pepper spray is nice this has failed to stop a lot of people…high on drugs, conditioned to it, mental health problems……the uncertainties associated with peppperspray begs for a more reliable way of stopping effectively a sex crazed man that will stop almost at nothing to conclude his perverted sex act. The Police should accept that this is one of thier top prioritization of duties but it appears they are handling this in thier same mediocre way as alot of other things.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Thank you George R. Ebanks. A very good view. I will be waiting for the RCIPS response.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Define pepper spray…is a mini spray bottle filled with vinegar and some chopped up scotch bonnets pepper spray? 🙂 What happens if I just so happen to keep my escovitch mix with me in a spray bottle just in case I want a snack on my run :):)

  9. SSM345 says:

    You would think an easy way of the RCIPS targeting these predators would be to send a female officer undercover i.e. jogging in these areas, with the rest of her support round the corner or hiding in the bushes should the perpetrator show himself or attack, they seem to do this sort of thing for drug dealing etc. So why are they doing nothing about it? Is it because these joggers are running to early in the morning for them to be on patrol?. Are they going to suggest to people that we now run between certain hours of the day only? Their silence on this is absolutely disgraceful.

  10. J.D. Mosley-Matchett says:

    Pepper spray may be illegal, but wasp spray isn’t and it shoots 50 feet.Just be careful not to stand downwind of the spray…

    • Anonymous says:

      But using it as an offensive weapon is illegal, as is using any device or implement not for its intended purpose. Stop giving stupid advice, it could lead to the arrest of normally decent people.

    • Just Asking says:

      Combined with a cigarette lighter.

  11. Sharkey says:

    Mr Ebanks this is a good time to start the licensing , because the premier is calling for people / women to exercise and stay healthy .

  12. Sharkey says:

    Mr Ebanks get in the business of training good dogs that can take the comand of attack, to protect the one that is in charge of the dog . Of course the the dogs would have to be licensed for this purpose. Rent them as jogging buddy, because police help is soon come.

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