Uniform change differentiates armed cops
(CNS): The RCIPS Firearms Response Unit is rolling out a new uniform for officers that will set them apart from the rest of the service. A press release issued Tuesday said the new uniform, which they will begin wearing in June, will make these armed officers more easily identifiable. The new grey colours will replace the existing navy blue and will stand out from the uniforms of the rest of the RCIPS, as well as other local law enforcement and government agencies.
The RCIPS said the design and features of the new uniforms were specifically selected following a rigorous research process conducted with FRU team leaders, in consultation with the members of the unit and the police commissioner. The new FRU uniform is primarily grey with dark coloured accessories. It includes a long-sleeved shirt for operational use or a darker grey polo shirt for standard duties. The shirts also feature the RCIPS logo and the name of the Firearms Response Unit.
The newly designed ballistic vest and helmet are meant to improve officer mobility and comfort, both when conducting foot patrols and when travelling by vehicle, while also providing a greater degree of protection, the police said. The vests are also prominently labelled on both the front and back with “Firearms Response Unit” and “Police,” to make it clear to the public.
“The FRU is the primary armed law enforcement entity in the Cayman Islands and it is imperative that FRU officers are distinguishable because of their unique roles and responsibilities,” said Inspector Damenian Maxwell, Chief Firearms Commander of the FRU.
He said that the old blue uniforms were very similar to those used by a number of other government agencies, whereas the new uniforms are unique to FRU officers, making them easily identifiable to other RCIPS officers, as well as to members of the public and other agencies.
Police Commissioner Derek Byrne said the public should expect to see members of the FRU on duty in these new uniforms shortly.
“This new FRU uniform and kit will distinguish RCIPS FRU from other agencies and entities across CIG and will provide for greater awareness and heightened visibility in our communities as our armed officers go about their business protecting communities, and in the prevention and detection of crime.”
The new uniforms are also being gazetted in legislation as specific to the RCIPS FRU.
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What a waste of money. Period.
If it wasn’t for the little weed bust they get now and then from someone trying to get a reduction in their prison sentence, they literally would have no value.
Most criminals get off because of POOR investigative efforts by the police.
YET, over 100 Keys of Cocaine go missing FROM the Central Police Station and to date, NO ONE has been held accountable for the theft, and no answers as to how the theft could even have happened have been given to the public from the Governor.
@ CNS, this would be a great follow-up story.
Relax. They look serious in this new uniform. I lije it. It wasn’t a waste of money. Embroidered face masks are.
Not sure what the purpose is here. Surely the fact they are carrying firearms is distinguishing enough?
Not sure why you are writing your comment, too much time on your hands?
This is the kind of stuff that makes citizens want to arm themselves.
CNS: Such people should spend a little time looking at gun deaths by country (see here) and comparing countries where there is little gun control and countries that have tight gun control. In the US it’s 12.21 per 100,000. In the UK its 0.23 per 100,000.
I remember an Australian comedian show where he talked about America’s obsession with guns. It goes like that:
A family man is in the bathroom sitting on a toilet. armed burglars trying to get into his house, the man with his pants still down rushes to a garage or wherever the safe with his guns is. See, he had children at home. He forgets where he puts the keys or digital code, so he is frantically trying to open safe, then he needs to load his gun, run towards the intruders…meantime burglars already left, after successfully burglarizing his home and tying his family to the kitchen chairs.
And if he had taken on a number of burglars without a gun, the outcome would be the same, except he would have probably gotten a beating before also being tied to the chair. Of course its just a made up story so it ends however the teller wants. How about you tell the real Cayman story about the householder who had a burglar armed with a knife break in. He had a gun in the safe, except in that story he managed to load it and shoot the burglar dead. Remember that one?
@CNS:
Let’s bring this close to home, the Caribbean, and our neighbour, Jamaica. Jamaica has among the strictest gun-control regulations in the western world. Anyone convicted in any of the special Gun Courts for any offense can and often is removed from Jamaican society, FOREVER: being caught in possession of just a single bullet can lead to a life sentence. For many years the only sentence issued by Gun Courts was indefinite incarceration. Pressure from Amnesty International caused authorities to amend the sentences (post conviction) to life in prison WITHOUT parole. Even with an almost certain prospect of living one’s life out in prison, firearm-related homicides in Jamaica continue to be among the world’s highest. Draconian gun control laws have not resulted a low rate of gun-related deaths there. Using the SAME map to which you referred, the firearm-related death rate per 100,000 population per year in Jamaica currently stands at 30.72, or 2.5 times that of the USA. That is in the face of Jamaica’s extremely strict gun laws and frightfully stiff penalties.
Contrast this to Iceland which has among the world’s highest number of gun owners per unit population–with reported rates reaching over 31,000(!) gun owners per 100,000–but yet has among the world’s lowest rates of gun deaths. Again, using the same map to which you referred, the firearm-related death rate per 100K population per year in Iceland is 0.07!
The takeaway: There is apparently a LOT more at work here than meets the eye.
Let’s be honest, ba k in the mid 90’s the 1st firarms unit was formed and they had the blue uniform, every dept in government since then copied them, why not make them change lol. In fact the Special Task Force was the unit back them and of course had to also change their name. Bunch of great guys who did an amazing job. Yes great job, polite to the public, aggressive when needed, but respect all. Unlike all these depta today.
As to the grey what a joke, I know who has a gun and who doesn’t no matter the colour of the uniform, bunch of jokers and disrespectful bunch they are now
If you took the time to read the article you would have understood that the point here is to distinguish armed officers from unarmed uniform services across the civil service, where it has become heavily BLUE fatigue clothing. There should be no mistaking the role of the arm officers. Cayman remains an unarmed police service but with an arm contingency. These guys will run into a hail of bullets to protect our citizens. I implore OUR country DO NOT do what has been done to policing in the US where it’s so politicized that morale is at an all time low -meanwhile criminal gangs have been emboldened by the narrative. I’d rather see arm cops on patrol any day than gang bangers driving around in heavily tinted Honda’s grinding their teeth and with their mouths squeeze to one side. Keep up the good work guys and don’t be disheartened by the negative narrative; this country appreciates what you do for us so we can all say we are living in the safest place on the planet!
“Run into a hail of bullets”. It isn’t a movie you know. General Patton asked one of his GI’s if he was prepared to die for for his country. “YES SIR” replied the GI. “Then you are a damn fool soldier” said the great general. “You are supposed to make the enemy die for his!”.
Armed cops should not be patrolling in Cayman. No need for that. Cayman is not Chicago or Philadelphia
They are for special operations. And if they spend half of the day improving skills, learning and practicing new techniques, so be it. Too many rookies here, having sn elite group of professional cops is overdue.
@6:35:
If they are not out in the street, what do you propose that they be doing until that rare call to action comes? Like the fire service, play dominoes and shine their boots and vehicles? Unless the plan is to place an armed unit in every district for quick response, I love the idea of having them out and about among us. If they are all playing dominoes in one central location, say GT Central, what happens if they are needed at Colliers during rush hour? Wait and have them help fill body bags when they show up an hour later? It is nothing but God’s grace that what happened in Uvalde has not happened here. God knows that there are criminals with firearms here. God knows there are violent mentally mad people here. The Uvalde police force being poorly trained and unprepared to deal with an active shooter with hostages situation contributed to the tragedy. If such an attack took place here, at least we can hope that our well-prepared gray troops, out on patrol with their badazz guns would result in a vastly different outcome.
I think the dark blue looked better, and grey will show sweat stains
Thank you to these brave officers wh arrest Caymans most violent criminals. These officers are heroes. I don’t care where they are from, they risk their lives to keep us safe.
Stop the negative comments. This is what getting tough on crime looks like.
I always wondered what getting tough on crime looked like.
Hmmm…… How many heroes do we have so far?
I hear the UK is sending over a couple of used Apache helicopters for border security.
Don’t bother….. When the Brac gets it’s helicopter fleet and landing pads, everything will be under control!
Oops! Sorry, that turned out to be just a pack of lies.
All local officers? Where is the laugh button.
Not sure which is more scary, crooks with guns or cops that think they are soldiers with guns.
Duh… Cops with guns are supposed to look scary.
Duh try reading properly, here is a clue “which is MORE scary”.
Aren’t properly trained and certifies? I bet they are.
Which is more than we can say for your grammar and comprehension.
there are both equal, as law-abiding citizens are defenseless against both
Not only does the uniform need to change but some of these individual’s need to be changed out as well, just saying.
When is legs day?
What IS legs day?
If ego was a physical thing they’d need an SUV per person.
How about you? you probably would need a large bus.
With bazookas in the trunk.
Until we stop hiring people from some of the most corrupt places on earth I will have no faith in their ability to uphold the law let alone enforce it especially when its their own people committed thing the crimes. Its not like the powers that be don’t know what’s going on. Makes me wonder what their agenda is.
I think you’ll find that Northward is crammed with Caymanian criminals? Not many ex-pats in there.
Hard for them to be there when so many allegedly get a pass.
You just proved their point. Caymanians don’t get the same passes they would give their own so Northward is filled with natives by a foreigner-dominated police force.
This extends to the psychology behind deciding whether to shoot at someone coming your direction in a vehicle, or simply getting out of the road. True story.
Yeah because the FRU can tell if the person driving the vehicle is Caymanian or Jamaican just by looking, and decide whether or not to fire accordingly. And all in that split second. Your bigotry blinds you to simple common sense.
They were well aware of who their target was. How else you think they knew which car to look for? try again.
I’ve been to northward. Plenty yardys upn deh
OK, so by your logic, an all-Caymanian police force would also be suspect to not wanting to enforce laws against fellow Caymanians. Sorry, your thought is not well thought out.
So Jamaican cops come to Cayman to escape the gangsters and violence of their home country, and are expected to be the paragons of armed and unarmed protection here on a BOT. Oh Lord, what could possibly go wrong when someone decides to be a suicidal hero one day.
How many are native Caymanians? I don’t have a problem with hiring foreign police officers, yet we seem to be getting a pretty poor and unprofessional bunch of late.
Define foreign. Uk, Canada, Caribbean?
@ Anonymous 9:am,
Nah. Jamaican.
I’ll answer for 1:36. “Not like me.”
And how many Caymanians apply each time RCIPS holds a recruitment session?
Police “militarization” has backfired in some countries. I don’t see it in usual practice in the UK. Why here?
It’s because nothing else has worked, so far.
Clothes don’t make the man.
Manners maketh the man, no chance of that either from this crowd.
All these keyboard warriors bashing Police any chance they get would wet their pants if they actually had to do go to a scene involving a gun or some maniac drunkard swinging a machete like the Police have to do regularly.
Plus, if someone breaking into their home, they are calling 9-1-1 for Police’s help so fast yet all they wanna do it feel big and criticize.
Funny, funny stuff.
true
Not like citizens have the Rights to protect themselves in this country, they have no choice but call the police. So stop belittling the people calling for help.
Hey, 8:40 pm….. I ain’t a policeman, but when I was fighting in the war, it was kill or be killed. How about you?
I only call them because if I took matters in my own hands, someone would be in a grave rather than court, and I’d be in court in their place. Not worth it.
Or just do your job and every patrol works instead of visiting girlfriends and such.
I’m not sure that some of them know what their job is! It’s sort of like CIG.
But they still can’t obey the law. 4 times this week I’ve seen an FRU police vehicle go around a roundabout and turn off without indicating. Absolute disgrace,
I hope that “rigorous research process” selected light, soft and breathable fabric for these uniforms which is appropriate for hot and humid conditions. It is usually constructed from a 57% nylon / 43% cotton blend.
We don’t want these 👮🏾♀️👮🏽♂️Rambos to get overheated.
That would require them to go outside.
Look more like Ghostbusters now.
Even the fire trucks are styled by Snake Pliskin. Doesn’t improve response time or fill the skills gap, sadly.
Looks more like the ongoing militarization of the police service. Whilst at the same time we have no real services for mental health or drug addiction. No strategic approach to address poor education or parenting standards. Protecting the public after the fact is great but there appears to be no real appetite for tackling the root causes of crime in the community which in the long term might reduce the necessity for arming our police service.
I wonder who might want an uneducated pool of voters in need of handouts and why nothing will ever change?
Socialist? Communist?
west bay?
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW?
It is “Dishonest, untrustworthy, lying, greedy snout-in-trough Caymanian politicians”! It just goes on and on and on. Disgusting, isn’t it!!!
Bingo! Just look at the makeup of the current Government and you have your answer
Well said.
My, my, aren’t they all looking tough, and are they oiled up?!
Simply put, Crime Is A Business.
Perhaps Ayn Rand was onto something:
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
Don’t go overboard about not carrying a weapon……. It’s better to have a gun and not need it than to need one and not have it.
I always assume the dark uniforms helped them blend into the darkness when they handled crime at night.
Handle or participate in?
Useless with a capital Y
They all local police then?
That’ll show them criminals.
Doubt it, but would love to be pleasantly surprised.
should look good patroling the streets of west bay.
Wait, the firearms they carry aren’t enough to set them apart?