Baines to quit one year early
Cayman Islands Police Commissioner David Baines
(CNS): Police Commissioner David Baines is to quit his post one year before his contract expires but the governor’s office has confirmed that the beleaguered RCIPS boss will still be paid until the end of his contract next June. In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, the governor offered her continued support to Baines as she announced that he will step down at the end of May and Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis will take the helm until a new commissioner is recruited.
“The recent barrage of unfair criticism and defamatory comments has undermined the commissioner’s authority to the extent that his leadership of the RCIPS is no longer tenable,” Governor Helen Kilpatrick said in the short statement. “The commissioner continues to have my support and will do so until he leaves his post.”
Despite the increasing public criticisms and the catalogue of well-documented concerns surrounding his leadership of the police, the governor praised Baines for his “dedicated service” over the last seven years.
“Crime statistics show that over this period the Cayman Islands have remained amongst the safest communities in the Caribbean. In addition to leading the RCIPS with professionalism, Commissioner Baines has made a significant contribution to policing in the wider Caribbean through his chairmanship of the Caribbean Chiefs of Police group and his leadership of work on firearms and gun crime for all of the Caribbean Overseas Territories,” the governor said, adding that police need and deserve community support to do their work and the security of Cayman I was a responsibility “we all share”.
The recruitment process is expected to begin shortly and the appointment of a police commissioner remains the responsibility of the governor’s office, even though the police budget is voted on by the Legislative Assembly.
There was no mention of mounting speculation that Baines had been earmarked to take up, at the end of his RCIPS contract, the office of a new super-ombudsman that the government has talked of creating that would merge the Office of the Complaints Commissioner with the Information Commissioner’s Office, data protection and a new independent police complaints commission.
The CoP has been under pressure since taking up the post in June 2009 and while there have been significant criticisms in the past by politicians and the broader community, the recent calls for his head have been unrelenting.
The fall in crime statistics has doing nothing to quash concerns that the police are not doing a good job responding to the perceived policing needs of the community or in the prosecution of cases, even though HMP Northward is currently desperately overcrowded.
The governor’s office has made no comment regarding the enquiry her office is said to be undertaking into the handling of the recent search and rescue operation, in which three men and two boys were lost at sea. No details have been revealed about who will conduct that probe.
It is understood that the eight opposition members are standing by their call to debate the need for a public independent enquiry into that case as well as a review of the entire management structure of the RCIPS and to place a Caymanian in the top job. A special meeting has been set for 13 April by the speaker of the House but so far the premier has made no comment on whether his government will support the motions or if not.
April 2022.,., he was just another useless, waste of our money, was on vacation the entire time!!!!!’
Will Caymanians please put the pitchforks and torches down and realize how like a mob you are hounding people out of a job. Why don’t you focus on your own Goverment departments and hound the “jobs for the boys” incompetent people there unfit to do the job!!!!
We have far too many lawyers, accountants and MBA’s here, many of who think the world could not run without them. The once great industrial nation of the UK now has spiralled downward in manufacturing in favour of business administration and what a mess they are. The MBA seems to be the most sought after qualification, but many MBA’s I have met are totally useless. The answer is vocational trade schools. A highly skilled, plumber, electrician, joiner etc can make a better living than any of the above, because the demand is outstripping the supply. There is room for both academics and trade skilled people. After all, a man was put on the moon without a single MBA involved.
There goes my dreams of law school.
good riddance…but why on earth is he still being paid.????? till contract finishes…come on CAYMAN wake up…there are plenty unemployed people here in cayman that needs food on their tables…JUST LET HIM GOOO>>>>GOOODBYEEEE>>
You are paying for bush for life and still hungry.
Good riddance.
It’s a crying shame we are losing a good man. Thank you Commissioner Baines. Some of us will miss you very much. Leave with your head held high. You did the best you could under very difficult circumstances. Some vindictive people here, full of hatred, were determined to put an end to your stay here, and they succeeded, more’s the shame.
2:15 PM and all your licking/liking buddies. The Commissioner did not do a good job. If he had we would today see more police presence , we would know who the officers were “he” not me he claimed were corrupt, we would have had knowledge of what process s were lacking at where; Police Headquarters, that allowed DRUGS and other unknown items to be stolen and motor scooters to be taken. We would also have known the truth on the stolen van with the intelligence equipment , who was responsible etc.
So 2:15 and all ya licking buddies yes he was a bad COP, he was in charge and nary a word on al of the above incompetence.
Let’s hope his replacement is an improvement. Perhaps Derek Haines is the man? Loved and respected by all.
I trust those in the room so hell-bent on defending Baines are prepared to offer him a job in their respective establishments.
However, I suggest you care very little about; substantial losses of goods, the recruitment of convicted murderers, inaccurate assessment of number of troublemakers in the organisation, upkeep of general morale in the workforce, etc.
Oh, if ever someone is in need of a good mow-down and running-over by way of sport utility vehicle – he’s your guy!!
😀
– Who
I am hoping you can be arrested for comments like that. Just pure hatred and nothing else. Very ugly, but not unexpected.
You know what, I think I may have gone too far. I apologise, no need. I’m just pleased to see that we’re getting some new blood. Hopefully they choose from a local pool, but I have no issue if it’s from overseas.
– Who
Ummm – even Stevie Wonder can see the above post was not the work of the authentic “Who”.
Stop it people! 🙂
However, I am not surprised by these tactics. The last time something like this happened was coincidentally the time the RCIPS and or ICTA (under whats-his-face, not the new guy) launched their pathetic investigation as to who and what was the Who.
(No doubt at the time a means to pinpoint time-stamped i.p. addresses and such – which is, of course, dependent on the person “taking the bait”. However, one does when one holds certain entities in the lowest possible regard.)
Yep, so many leaks in Cayman that even I heard about it. Made it a point to wave at the concerned players whilst out and about from that moment onward.
– Who
P.S. Please for the sake of free speech and online anonymity, post this comment CNS, lol! Don’t let the people be fooled into thinking Who is apologetic at such a crucial moment. Even if you have to edit out bits and pieces … but do ya boy a solid. Thanks!
🙂
Interesting.
However, if you had good sense and weren’t biased, you would hope people could be arrested for ACTIONS like that!
You get me?
(Once again, the rumblings on CNS never fail to amaze.)
– Whodatis
blaming baines for the above is like blaming the governor…..
caymanians never accept true accountability or responsibility for anything….
i feel sorry for baines and the amount of local ignorance and arrogance he must have endured….
If an expat ever posted something like about a Caymanian could imagine the level of self-righteous indignation that would come from Who? Who really is tooltastic.
The problem with Cayman Islands is its full of people like this.
Lol…here come the super defenders of all things pure and balanced – so long as a non-Caymanian is under the spotlight.
Where are you and your friends when Caymanians are being insulted and slandered all day, every day on this very forum??
gtfoh
– Who