100s of tickets issued as cops begin Christmas crackdown

| 12/12/2019 | 52 Comments
Cayman News Service
Another crash on the roads of Grand Cayman, which happened Thursday morning

(CNS): Traffic cops has issued over 100 speeding tickets, another 132 for excessive tint, arrested eleven drunk drivers and eight disqualified and unqualified drivers, and handed out more than 30 other citations for other traffic offenses, as the RCIPS Christmas crackdown gets underway. With Cayman’s mounting traffic troubles and the constant reports of serious road smashes, officers are warning everyone not to drink and drive and pay much more attention on the road.

Holiday traffic safety operations started this month with intensified road enforcement operations, which police say will continue throughout the holiday season and into the new year. The Traffic and Roads Policing Unit has increased its stops and high visibility patrols, with the aim of reducing traffic collisions, cracking down on traffic offenses, and reassuring the community through an increased police presence.

Drinking and driving dominates the concerns, especially during the holiday season, and is a focus of the campaign, but officers are also targeting illegal tint, speeding and disqualified drivers.

“As we enter the festive season, we know that the temptation to drink and drive increases,” said Inspector Dwayne Jones, head of the traffic unit. “That’s why increased road enforcement is needed to deter drinking and driving and the serious accidents that can result. We understand the desire to celebrate and socialize, and we simply encourage the public to do so responsibly. If you will be consuming alcohol, then you must find an alternative to driving. If not, you will face the consequences.”

Robert Graham, Superintendent of Uniform Operations, explained that the safety campaign is not just about deterring bad behaviour on the roads and targeting law breakers, but also improving police visibility as a deterrent to crime and road offenses over the holidays.

“Bad driving practices and the enforcement of the law needs to be addressed whatever time of year but the festive period brings with it additional issues and challenges. As such, please make arrangements in advance to ensure safe transportation to and from holiday festivities,” he said. “I would ask all members of the public to work with the police and drive responsibly. By simply following the law, you can help to make the roads that much safer this holiday season.”

As in past years, the RCIPS is also supporting the National Drug Council in their annual Designated Driver and New Year’s Eve Purple Ribbon Bus campaigns. The Designated Driver Campaign began on 1 December and continues throughout the holiday season. The campaign is an initiative among local restaurants, which offer to provide the designated driver of a party with complimentary soft drinks throughout the evening.

The Purple Ribbon Bus service provides free bus service on New Year’s Eve from 9:00pm to 4:00am for all districts on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac. Additionally the RCIPS encourages drivers to take the Purple Ribbon Pledge to not drink and drive over the holiday season.

Visit the National Drug Council for more information.


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Comments (52)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    In the U.S police officers are handing out Turkeys and Ham to drivers and wishing drivers
    a Very Merry Christmas-

    While here in Cayman our Police Officers are handing out tickets for everything and anything- why do the Police have to wait for Christmas to do this to people

    Is this what they call “Cayman Kind”

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  2. Anonymous says:

    35,000 work permits later…. let’s see how RCIP will handle the roads then.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    In the USA, the Bible for post-Kansas City policing is called “Tactics for Criminal Patrol”, by Charles Remsberg. It came out in 1995 and laid out what was required of the new, suspicion-based patrol officer. It’s technique of concealed interrogation, led to targeted stop and searches of any/all suspicious vehicles. Some officers are still doing 500 stops per day in some depts in the USA.

    The “Reid Technique”, is the world’s most influential training program for law enforcement is used by two thirds of US State police departments, the FBI, and countless other agencies around the world. It relies directly on the idea of behavioral transparency, using the demeanor of their subject as the guide of innocence or guilt.

    Unfortunately, both of these systems are unreliable, rely on sometimes mismatched indicators, also prone to bias and abuse, with many innocents targeted, and some of them tragically shot dead, thus, understandably, hatching the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

    The reason that Kansas City experienced dramatic drop in crime was the realization that 80% of their crime originated from a couple location-specific neighbourhoods. Regular patrols in those specific problematic neighbourhoods dropped crime to nearly zero.

    Our bars have large parking lots filled with cars, that empty at closing time – the drunkest keep going to an afterparty somewhere. Knowing all this, the RCIPS should be at, or near, the most problematic drinking holes, and in the parking lots at closing, where all the violence happens and DUIs begin. They should be ready to respond, anticipating normal social behavior patterns of the last 30 years. That means having a substantial late night force ready to work and collect samples from 2-5am.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    We need a stronger presence of policing on our roads year round, not just at holiday season. Cell phone use has to be more strictly enforced. It’s out of control! Every day I avoid an accident being a cautious defensive driver, the perpetrators have a phone glued to their ear. Other countries have introduced heavy fines and it works. But has to be enforced.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Great news on the RCIPS cracking down over the holidays, but like I’ve said before on CNS, that the police need to be on patrol more all year round!!

    RCIPS, please please try to crackdown on Shammrock Road, especially from Spotts Newlands Road to Lantern Point roundabout! Drivers are speeding here EVERYDAY, passing on the double yellow lines, and barely missing you when trying to turn off Shammrock Road to Poindexter Road!!!!

    This area of roads are one of the most dangerous roads in Cayman, and very nerve racking for me!!

    Also, why aren’t there police, or guards directing the traffic during school zone times? Wow RCIPS, you’re missing an opportunity here everyday for issuing speeding tickets!!

    And Oohhh those dump trucks….do I need to say anymore??!!!

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    • Anonymous says:

      The issue with people going into the back of others Poindexter area, it’s because about 80% of drivers cruise in the right lane. They’re then surprised when someone turns in front of them.

      The ones that make me laugh are people who pull out onto a dual carriageway straight unti the right lane. Seriously, what???

  6. Anonymous says:

    A lot of people here are judging by their standards. They need to realise a significant % of drivers, qualified, unqualified, banned and everything in between, simply don’t care. They’ll drive regardless, and cause havoc.

    Sentencing and education need to be better.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    speeding is the biggest danger. treble all speeding fines.
    my dash cam records hundreds of traffic offences everyday…why aren’t all police cars fitting with one?…..plus they cost almost nothing

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    • Anonymous says:

      I’d like to Traffic Regulations changed for a lot of things, including triple fines and zero tolerance for dangerous speeding/lane drifting/load spilling full time vocational drivers: dump trucks, school buses, taxis, mini buses, tourist buses, fuel tank wagons, panel vans with yardies in the back…this ain’t Talledega. Unfortunately the RCIPS officers have never read the Law or the Regs, or think it’s someone else’s job to enforce.

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    • Anonymous says:

      No lie! We were almost run down in a crosswalk on Cardinal Ave today! Honda doing at least 50 no police ever in GT

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    • Royal says:

      I never drive without my cams rolling, front and back. Sometimes I don’t even realise the violations I capture until I review them. Like last Friday, a mobile phone user on Crewe Road. I’ve been advocating police dash cameras and road traffic cctv especially at junctions for ages. Vote me in and I’ll make sure all emergency vehicles, including fire engines and ambulances have them and their footage of violations will be prosecuted in the courts.

  8. Anonymous says:

    What about the police parking lot. All their personal cars have dark tints and plastic covers over their number plates. Two sets of rules?

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  9. S says:

    Only one way to teach people is ticket them till they learn. If you are always concerned that you will receive a ticket. You will follow the rules.

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    • Anonymous says:

      …yeah with the expectation that you might be pulled over, you might think twice about carrying the handgun, drugs, machetes, balaclavas, and stolen goods. You don’t say?!? #police101

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  10. Abys says:

    Targeting illegal tint
    That creates revenue through tickets
    That Customs allows through
    That creates revenue through duties.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Operation Christmas cracker….. how about operation enforce the laws all the time even the small ones.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Honestly it’s sad that more than half of those people you think are drunk….are not. Nope, they’re just terrible drivers. And they should never have a license.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Just a reminder that if you drive a vehicle with a km/h speedo as opposed to mph, PLEASE learn the conversion of local mph speed limits. That goes for both groups of people (those driving too slow and too fast). Thanks.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    In my numerous comments in the past I had said that focus must be on the roads design, not human behaviour, because there are no such a ting as a perfect human. As it turns out, I am not alone.

    Sweden has a plan to end all traffic accident deaths- Zero Vision policy that aimed to reduce the number of road-accident fatalities to zero by 2020.

    Vision Zero assumes that there are no perfect humans. It is human to make a mistake.
    Vision Zero has been described as a policy innovation with a focus on the tolerance of the human body to kinetic energy and that the responsibility for road safety falls on the system designers.

    I’ll repeat:
    THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ROAD SAFETY FALLS ON THE SYSTEM DESIGNERS.

    * In a traditional approach, the problem you’re trying to solve is the problem with ACCIDENTS. And when you make in-depth studies you will see that HUMAN FACTOR is involved in 90 percent. So you focus very much on how you can prevent accidents from occurring, HOW CAN YOU CHANGE BEHAVIOUR and that sort of thing.

    https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2014/11/the-swedish-approach-to-road-safety-the-accident-is-not-the-major-problem/382995/

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    • Anonymous says:

      3:09 are you talking about automatic roads!

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    • Anonymous says:

      @3:09 “Vision Zero assumes that there are no perfect humans. It is human to make a mistake.”

      Are you suggesting that all the craziness that we see on our roads every day is just humans making “mistakes” ?

      No amount of road design can fix the fools on our roads or that of any other countries for that matter.

      Good luck to Sweden.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Can they pay it online? Reduces traffic by the way. If one doesn’t have to physically be somewhere to pay the fine. Triple the amount of fine; if not paid within 30 days, license suspended for 3-6-9-12 months, depending on the severity of the offense.
    Why such simple solutions are not employed?
    Always hit where it really hurts, in this case – one’s POCKET.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Driving responsibly does not just happen, it takes education. Start drivers education classes in school before teens can get their licence. Require insurance companies to give a 10% discount for an 80% pass on practical and book test results. The idiots on the road today need to be caught, booked and licence revoked until they pass the same drivers education test and after penalties incurred for infractions. Any garages found performing illegal modifications to engines and drivetrains should be fined heavily too.

    The police are the front lines of any campaign to crack down and should demonstrate by example. They cannot hope to garner public respect without being exemplary in the way they drive and enforce. All officers driving vehicles should all be required to pass the same drivers education test with greater than 90% score. The new motto of traffic police should read “Leading by example, enforcing safe driving all the time”

    Let’s make Cayman’s roads safe again!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Human behavior is inherently flawed. Swedish have figured it out. The rest of the world, including 1:43pm is still trying to create a perfect human.

      DESIGN ROADS SO FLAWED HUMANS WON’T BE ABLE, EVEN IF THEY WANTED TO, TO CAUSE AN ACCIDENT THAT COULD TAKE LIFE OR CAUASE SEVERY INGURY.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    Laws aren’t just for Christmas.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    Stupid drivers, no law enforcement, lots of stupid accidents. Cayman.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    Just once, it would be interesting to query the annual RCIPS press release directly with their fat cat executive suit, to try to hear them defend on the record, their lackluster annual supervisory and interdiction thesis: that alcoholic binge drinkers and drivers are only sociable and active during the few weeks leading up to Christmas and New Years, and all the rest of the year don’t merit any other community effort. Those of us that navigate our families through the weaving drivers can testify that drunks are everywhere, at all hours, all year long.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Police know this. They catch them all year through. One DUI takes a unit off the road for an hour or two. There’s not infinite units available unfortunately.

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      • Anonymous says:

        $200,000,000 budgeted for civil defense and policing with >400 full time cops…and maybe 2-4 rookies on traffic duty, sometimes?!? Explain!

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  20. Anonymous says:

    They need to do this year round, not just “during christmas”

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  21. Anonymous says:

    Round of applause is needed for the driver of the black Mitsubishi in the photo. It’s so difficult to flip a car on its roof in a 30mph zone, but they’ve succeeded. Well done!!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Bet we have enough epic crash meisters in Cayman to install a commemorative wall just like Hero’s Square. Any suggestions on where we’d build it with plenty of room for expansion of course?

    • Anonymous says:

      Judging by the marking on the rear tire it looks like he may have hit the curb and that’s what flipped it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Exactly! Crazy! Can’t make this stuff up!

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