Cops begin Christmas crime, crashes crackdown

| 05/12/2022 | 72 Comments
RCIPS officers on traffic duty

(CNS): The RCIPS annual Christmas crackdown on crime and road collisions is underway, which means more cops on the beat and more road checks. During Operation Winter Guardian, which started Thursday, there will be an increase in community foot patrols, high visibility mobile patrols and intensified road enforcement operations, supported by road safety education and awareness campaigns. The RCIPS said community police officers would be conducting evening foot patrols across residential communities and commercial areas.

Although there were three robberies on Friday evening, the increase in police patrols is meant to increase visibility and support to residents, business owners and shoppers throughout the Holiday Season. The RCIPS said officers from the special constabulary will be added to increase the presence of uniformed officers throughout the island, and members of the 2022 RCIPS Recruit Class will be working alongside traffic officers.

“The arrival of the festive season means more activity on our roads, in businesses and everywhere people gather to socialise, and so our holiday safety campaign is about ensuring public safety, providing reassurance, and deterring crime,” said Deputy Commissioner Kurt Walton. “We conduct these activities throughout the year, but during this time period a more strategic approach is required. I would ask all members of the public to work with us by simply following the law and behaving responsibly as we continue to work to keep our communities safer.”

Road safety is a major part of the Holiday Safety Campaign, with the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit deploying high visibility patrols and traffic checkpoints. The aim is to reduce traffic collisions and increase road safety by cracking down on inconsiderate driving, distracted driving and speeding. Targeting drinking and driving remains the main focus, particularly since the legal alcohol limit for drivers has recently been lowered to 0.07%.

“We are reminding everyone to avoid driving if you plan to drink, as it is now even more likely that you will be over the legal limit if you do so,” said Inspector Andre Tahal, head of the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit. “We know that social gatherings become more frequent during the festive season. However, drinking and driving is no less dangerous now than at any other time of the year. If you are drinking, make a plan that doesn’t involve driving.”

The RCIPS is also supporting the National Drug Council’s annual Arrive Alive 345 Campaign. This includes the Designated Driver Programme, where local restaurants and bars offer free soft drinks to designated drivers. 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. The police are encouraging all drivers to take the Purple Ribbon Pledge to not drink and drive over the holiday season.

The police are also urging the public to be especially cautious of financial crime, which tends to increase during the holiday season as people do more online shopping and increase transactions using debit and credit cards. Always be sure to take appropriate precautions when engaging in these activities, and be sure to guard your financial information closely.

Look for crime prevention tips on the RCIPS website.


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Category: Crime, Police

Comments (72)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Please crackdown on:

    Crappy unroadworthy dodgy rental Hondas, usually about 10 to 15 year cash cows, and driven by idiots.

    The many cars with no front plates.

    The dump trucks that really should be resting in peace at the actual dump. Bald tyres,jake braking, and usually overloaded. They’re a menace on many levels.

    The speeders who weave in traffic to save 0.3 of a second, but cause delays to everyone behind them.

    Idiots blocking junctions and roundabouts at peak times.

    Cars fitted with multi colored lights. Red lights up front for example? illegal and monumentally stupid, usually on a Jeep or some random Japanese sedan.

    Oh, and please shine laser beams into the eyes of the numbskulls who think driving at night needs high beams at all times.

    Thanks

    Every road user with half a brain

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    • Anonymous says:

      Everyone who drives in the right hand lane when not overtaking or turning right!

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      • Anonymous says:

        just don’t speed? drive normal and we will all make it safer.

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        • Anonymous says:

          You have no right to complain about people ignoring the rules when you are too. Read the Cayman Road Code and learn to drive properly. If people are weaving around you then you are also part of the problem. Defensive driving 101, keep yourself out of trouble.

          Cayman road code, page 13 “If there are two or more lanes on the carriageway:
          • keep in the left lane unless overtaking or turning right;”

          Cayman road code, page 20 “MULTI-LANE ROADWAY…Use the right-hand lane for overtaking or turning right. As soon as practicable after overtaking, you are to move back to the left lane.”

          https://www.dvdl.gov.ky/documents/Road-Code-2012-1-2021-02-25-02-10-56.pdf

        • Anonymous says:

          if “normal” for you means driving in the right hand lane for no reason then you’re part of the problem

        • Anonymous says:

          just drive in the proper lane

    • Anonymous says:

      how about clearing all the derelict vehicles on the roads or empty land that have been left! I’ve emailed about at least 5 and not one had been towed but the sticker giving 3 days to move back in October is still on.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why are these even requests. All of these issues are breaches of the law. Which are not being enforced.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Does anyone have Wayne Panton’s number? Be handy to keep in the car just in case.

    26
    • Anonymous says:

      His car drives around at night with his rear frickin fog lights on. Please, someone tell him, or his driver, why you don’t need them here, and show them how to turn them off.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Fairbanks road is a speedway, put cops there any day and you will net hundreds of speeding vehicles, motorised bicycles, the wheelie idiots and off road dirt bikes with no license, insurance or plates.

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    • Anonymous says:

      They use Fairbanks road because there is NEVER a police presence. It is an extremely busy road and not to mention a thoroughfare for trucks and their stupid loud jake brakes.

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  4. Cheese Face says:

    Hey cops, about 6 people tried to kill me on the way to work this morning, I don’t believe any of them were drunk. Perhaps we could start by removing all Hondas from the road. Also, any Audi or BMW being driven by someone in a high vis vest. The driving in the mornings is worse than at any other time of day, yet how many cops do you see? ZERO! Honestly, it’s not rocket science!

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    • Anonymous says:

      High driving is not sober driving.

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    • Anonymous says:

      It’s not the car’s make, it’s the car’s driver that allegedly almost caused your death, foofool.

      If it wasn’t a Honda because you banned all Hondas, they’d be in some other brand, and you’d hate THAT specific brand instead of the actual person with a driving ability no greater than my dog’s.

      Perhaps the root cause is not the brand of vehicle, but the level of testing and enforcement done to verify that the driver is actually competent and willing to drive in an acceptable manner.

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      • Cheese Face says:

        Nah, it’s the Hondas 😉

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      • Anonymous says:

        Of course it’s not the car’s fault but there’s an undeniable correlation between appalling driving fast and slow, serious RTA’s and Hondas! Whenever there’s a death 9 times out of 10 it’s a Honda.

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        • Anonymous says:

          At some point 9 times out of 10 it was a vaccinated person dying, but that was just because of the vast difference in numbers, not because the vaccine caused the deaths.

          Correlation does not imply causation. Go back to statistics and psychology 101.

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          • Anonymous says:

            Maybe try reading 101. “Of course it’s not the car’s fault…”. As for causation I’d go with the problem being the demographic attracted to them by movies like “fast and furious”, that they won’t have ever had any proper driver training or taken a real driving test and that the cars are old, often poorly modified, unsafe and in many cases unroadworthy.

            • Anonymous says:

              “there’s an undeniable correlation between appalling driving fast and slow, serious RTA’s and * Hondas *”

              I need to read? You need to stop contradicting yourself.

              • Anonymous says:

                Yes you need to read. Correlation is not the same as causation. Jeez, you’re painful. Hondas are clearly involved in more than their fair share of poor driving and RTA’s. Literally everyone you speak to acknowledges this, even visitors. I guess you drive a Honda.

          • Anonymous says:

            Honda’s don’t make up even close to 9 out of 10 of the cars on the road but they do seem to make up something like that in the number of fatal RTAs so your covid observation, whilst valid, is irrelevant. Hondas appear to be very disproportionately involved in RTAs and fatal crashes.

      • Anonymous says:

        Definitely a correlation between accidents / bad driving & Hondas ( especially if resprayed!)

    • Anonymous says:

      And all the dump trucks that think they have right of way on roundabouts.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    just forking enforce traffic laws all year round ya idiots! never have I seen a cop in the morning drive hiding around a bend to catch agressive drivers. I’ve watched cars speed by on duty officers who do nothing! ya bunch are lazy losers.

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  6. anonymous says:

    IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT –
    The police are going to do their job for one month (just one month mind, don’t be expecting more than that).

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Do they breathalyze MPs during Christmas crackdowns, or is it a year long free pass?

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Frank Sound dock junction, BT Shamrock Rd junction by the primary school, Grand Harbour area by Rubis, overpass road by Seafire etc… set up actual roadblocks at these places, day or night, you’ll get so many people to prosecute you’ll be filling in files forever.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Drinking and driving is the main focus… Deary me. The focus on this is entirely disproportionate – nanny state nonsense which is more about controlling the populations behavior, rather than what really matters to the population. The main focus must be on violent crime, yet here we are being lectured too. Again.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Pretending that drunk driving is not an issue, especially nearing the holidays, is problematic. Regardless of how you feel about “nanny state” making sure people don’t kill others while drunk behind the wheel of a vehicle, anyone with any semblance of sense understands that we employ more than enough ex-JCF employees that they should be more than capable of covering both of these problem areas simultaneously.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Curious also that the RCIPS don’t seem to have any of the mobile testing equipment to detect other types of impaired driving, the traffic code is silent on these, however rampant the problem -particularly in fatal accidents.

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      • Anonymous says:

        No one is pretending that drunk driving is not an issue. The point is that policing should be proportionate and the main focus must be on violent crime, gun crime and organised crime all year round.

        • Anonymous says:

          …and again, the actual point is, we employ way more than enough cops for this 100sq.mile territory, that they should be held accountable for managing both things simultaneously all year round. In 2012, we were 25th in the world in regards to the number of cops per 100k population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers

          Also, I don’t know about you, but after seeing my fair share of roadside fatalities (and having lost my best friend in one 20 years ago) I definitely consider killing someone with a car while drunk driving to be “violent crime”.

  10. Anonymous says:

    ‘oh no i didn’t !’

    ‘oh yes you did !’

    ‘behind you !!’

  11. Wtb says:

    It’s is pretty amazing how useless they seem to be
    It is almost as if they are afraid to setup road blocks where they know they will obviously catch people
    At the choke points north and south of the strip at about 10pm on Friday and Saturday
    You would need a couple tour buses with that haul of DUIs and yes it just might be someone the officer knows

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Queue the annual canned “unacceptable” lecturing.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Have they found the owner of the yellow kayak yet? Or can they not even manage that?

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  14. Anonymous says:

    How many unsolved armed robberies have we had in the past month? But RCIPS wants to focus on road safety – well, for one month a year anyway. Glad COP has his priorities straight.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Any civil servants being arrested for maladministration? Do the cops even know what it is?

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  16. No see um says:

    The Phantom Force needs to pretend it’s Christmas year round so we can all know they really exist!.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    Good. May I please ask that these officers give special attention to the lousy fools who insist on making U-turns by the Humane society EVERY DAY even though there are a number of signs there saying NO U TURN.

    And then they block up the road because they can’t even make a proper turn u turn to save their life, even though it’s illegal anyway. For sure there are some drunk drivers or not-licensed drivers or uninsured motorists among that bunch that would be caught.

    PLEASE Rcips stop and ticket those u turners. Please. I am begging you.

    Also, the dirt bikers that think they are all bad a$$ doing wheelies and running a muck but they ride around wearing masks over their faces because they are actually scared, weak little waste boys.

    That is my Christmas wish list. I could go on but I don’t want to sound greedy.

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    • YES says:

      While you at it 6:21 why don’t you also ask SantaCop to pick up those who imbibe most heavily at Fidel Murphys snd other libation stations frequented by the presumed upper crust who drive out on one of the busiest roads on the west corridor totally and unequivocally STINKO as they say somewhere . Maybe you forgot them or are they untouchable like others.

      Let’s level the drinking sphere eh!

      15
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    • Anonymous says:

      Dump trucks jake braking down through 10 gears at every roundabout is on mine. Can hear these overloaded trucks coming for a few miles. Nobody cleaning up the dangerous softball-sized marl they scatter on our roadways either.

      17
  18. Anonymous says:

    The driving is worse than ever. Mainly taxis buses and locals. Crack down on that to stop accidents.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    I can get free soft drinks at bars and restaurants if I am the driver? I’ve never heard of this or seen it advertised any where.
    How can I find out which ones offer this benefit?

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  20. Anonymous says:

    We trust they’re on the lookout for a white vehicle with a guy with unspecified thing in his hand. Whoever that is must be driving around knowing his time is almost up. The net is closing in on you, Sir!

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  21. Anonymous says:

    How many financial services open bar FIFA soccer networking events have there been just in th last week? Nothing has changed.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Just bitter you were not invited.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Cayman workplace networking = drinking events

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        • Anonymous says:

          and you assume they all drive home? you people are so focused on professional expats DUIs that you fail to see who is the majority that actually get DUIs. again, the goal should be 24/7 policing of all infractions but the cops are lazy AF.

  22. Anonymous says:

    why wait to Christmas? maybe a bright idea woukd would be to introduce a minimum quota system so there is incentive for our police to do something? makes sense….nevermind.

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  23. Anonymous says:

    Cops begin annual 30 days of going to work. Lols

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  24. N says:

    “Christmas crackdown”. Why not every day? I often drive the entire length of the island without seeing any traffic law enforcement, and numerous traffic law violations!

    46
    • Anonymous says:

      In the right hand lane at 35mph no doubt.

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    • Anonymous says:

      the only time I see cops is at 8.30am when they’re hiding amongst construction workers by The Grove or Ritz hoping to score some easy tickets.

      laziest “force” in the world….

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  25. Anonymous says:

    Reprehensibly Comical Investigating & Patrolling Service.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Really Can’t Investigate Public Situations

      Traffic violations come to them if they stand in the road, but obviously, actually doing investigative work to solve actual crimes takes too much skill and effort.

      They couldn’t find my stolen vehicle that was parked 23 feet away from a CCTV tower, but a friend found it on the road while out on the road too.

      Laughable, and this is why there’s a huge morale issue there. I actually turned down a job offer from them to go elsewhere after inquiring with another Caymanian friend in the RCIPS who advised me to run away from it like a criminal. It’s dominated by foreign officers who come here for an easier, cushy life, and this is why they DO NOT have Caymanian’s best interests at heart.

      I don’t have anything against expats – this is just how it is in that specific organization.

      14

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