Police need evidence to put an end to robberies
(CNS): Despite acquiring and trawling through almost 2,000 hours of CCTV footage, seizing six cars, conducting numerous stop and searches, executing search warrants and having identified around a dozen suspects in connection with the current unprecedented spike in robberies, the police say they need the public’s help to secure the evidence required to lock up the men and put a stop to the crime.
Deputy Police Commissioner Kurt Walton said that both visible and undercover officers are working on these crimes and patrols have increased to help people feel safer and deter the criminals, but the only way the crime spike will end is when they are caught and convicted.
One of the suspects in the robberies is believed to be Marcus Manderson, who skipped bail while on remand following a conviction for an unrelated firearms offence and the police are seeking the public’s help tracking him down.
Since the last meeting with the local press in mid-November, another twelve robberies have been reported to the police in this unprecedented crime spree. Walton told the media Monday that the RCIPS is doing everything possible to contain three loosely associated groups of criminals, all of whom are local and well known to the police.
There are more armed units on the road and officers are being taken from backroom jobs to join the increased visible patrols and officers working undercover, as they closely monitor the movements of those they believe are responsible.
“There is still a lot of work to get where we want to be,” Walton said. He confirmed that the police have only charged one man with one of the 32 robberies that have taken place since August, though two other robbery suspects are on remand charged with other crimes. “An immense amount of work has been going on behind the scenes,” he said.
Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown explained some of the problems the police face securing the evidence. While they have recovered cars they believe are being used, the criminals have been wearing gloves and masks and therefore leave no forensic evidence behind. They use stolen vehicles or swap plates around and appear to have access to a pool of cars that are not always properly registered. All of this makes the work of detectives tracing footage all the more difficult, he said.
The police are receiving tips and have used that intelligence to execute search warrants or stop the suspects when they are on the road, but without any direct evidence connecting them to the crimes, they have no basis to charge them, Lansdown said, adding that they need family members or close friends who know what’s going on to come forward.
Lansdown said that most of the suspects “are on our radar”, but without the direct evidence they have to let them go. “These are young local people who are confident, forensically aware and have experience with the police and have learned the tactics we use. They know how to operate. We are after them and they don’t want to get caught.”
He said the criminal gangs are focusing on easy targets and are switching to ambushing people while they are using ATMs at night. In most cases, these culprits are looking at years behind bars once they are caught stealing small amounts of money, which might be fuelling the frequency of crimes.
Landsdown said the police were getting tips that lead to “plenty of stops and searches” but no evidence. “There are family members who know their relatives are committing these robberies,” he added, urging them to do the right thing. “Anonymous information is good intelligence and we know an awful lot of what is going on, but we need evidence and we urge people to stand up and be counted and we will all be in a much safer place.”
There are around 14 “persons of interest” in connection with the robberies, but Superintendent Brad Ebanks said that tracking that many people is a challenge. This spike in robberies is forming a key part of the seasonal crackdown on crime, known as Operation Winter Guardian, and is why there are more armed officers on patrol and at the roadblocks.
Police are warning everyone to take extra care over Christmas, avoid carrying cash, be aware of their surroundings, ensure vehicles are locked and above all, report anything suspicious, especially missing registration plates. Anyone who sees anything suspicious, such as people loitering or hiding in bushes, is urged to call the police, as just having the blue lights show up can often be enough to scare off the robbers.
The police said the $100,000 reward is a huge incentive for people to come forward if they have information that can help get these robbers off the street.
But Deputy Commissioner Walton also told the community to enjoy themselves over the holidays, do their Christmas shopping and go out and celebrate because Cayman is still very safe compared to other Caribbean islands. The police will be there to help them feel safe, he said, but asked people to keep their eyes open, and if they see “anything at all that could be out of the ordinary”, to call the police.
He said that the heightened visibility might stall the spike in robberies “but to fully stop it we need to catch all of these individuals and bring them to justice. The overt policing is to help people to feel safe and allow investigators to catch up with their work on the information they already have.”
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
On the eve of 2023, the RCIPS still prefer to invite the least reliable, “someone said they saw” witnesses evidence, like it’s 1950, than submit high res video, plate info, fingerprints, officer accounts, or other empirical proof to DPP. Medieval times continue.
Great headline. Like no kidding?
Cayman has about one officer per 203 people based on 2021 census data. The north american average is one per 500. Which means Cayman has more than double the officer to population ratio. it seems we should have more than enough resources to tackle this issue.
The Cayman Islands does have enough people to put the brakes on the bad boys here on Grand. I often wonder
why they don’t. Do you?
Do they employ detectives?
Detectives? What is that?
A few things need to happen in Cayman
1. Refuse bail for any armed/violent crimes
2. Introduce a “3 strike rule”. 3 serious offenses result in a mandatory 15 year prison sentence.
3. Increase the percentage of a sentence that actually has to be served. To many of these fools get 5 year sentences and out out in 2.5 years.
If you search most of these guys names, you will see many previous articles involving previous arrests for similar crimes and yet they are always released early. Violent crimes should carry a minimum 10 year sentence to be served in full, with no early release date otherwise there is no deterrent.
This what happened when human rights decided kids should’nt get a proper *** whoopping when they did wrong.🤷🏾♂️ Now look at the world
In many instances of these criminals, there are absentee parents. As such, a proper whooping is not the issue, but rather lack of proper parenting. Many of these people were never given guidance in life.
👩⚕️🧑⚕️👨⚕️Can you imagine a team of surgeons asking a patient to provide the evidence that his pain is caused by an appendix that about to burst?
👩🏽🔧🧑🔧👨🔧Or a team of mechanics to prove that a rattling sound only you hear is caused by some mechanical problems.
👩🚒🧑🚒👨🚒Or a team of firefighters asking bystanders to pinpoint the location of people in a burning building?
This is the only organization in Cayman that expects a headline article and/or announces their yearly 1 month commitment to actually doing their bloody job.
All of unna expat police come here for a cushy life and that’s why traffic ticketing is your main focus. My Caymanian friend who is more than qualified to be a police officer didn’t even get a damn interview but I bet you an expat from Jam filled the post!
The most sarcastic bravo to you all for the one time out of ten you manage to catch actual criminals instead of a lil 20 year old bunnin a spliff. Can’t get paid if you do 0 work, I guess.
A big middle finger to each and every one of you whenever I see you on the road. All now you can’t catch the people who stole my car but wanna ticket me for doing 48 on a highway. Wotless!!!!
Its no good admitting to being a criminal and then complaining about the police. Your job as a responsible member of society is to abide by the laws and help the police do their job.
48 in a 40 isn’t criminal it’s a civil matter.
It is as traffic matter.
It’s not the only organization. The entire civil service requires the same.
bet your friend has had 10 jobs in ten years
Police you are the front line in crime prevention. Do your job. Just holding a speed gun on the roads is far from solving any crime that occurs.
DO YOUR JOBS AND IF YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING YOUR JOB, THEN DO IT BETTER!
These boys just trying save up a few dollars to buy all their baby mamas something nice for Christmas.
“Save up”??!!!!
This is stealing, pure and simple. Families going without so these idiots can buy something shiny for uneducated girls who spread their legs for them.
I think you’re missing the sarcasm and commentary in the OPs comments.
I think you have misused ‘op’
I haven’t. OP = Original Poster.
Ah right that’s a new one for me. I was thinking Op-ed which is also now shortened to OP
So what – they can’t get any good jobs because of all the work permit people.
They can’t get a good job because of their actions and attitudes. Their robbing people at gunpoint is proof of this statement!
What you mean. Ambitious people?
I once provided the police of cctv footage of a break in. Three months later they asked for another copy because they lost it, but by that time the hard drive had looped. The next break in I didn’t bother to report.
Same here!
“ the only way the crime spike will end is when they are caught and convicted.”. Quite apart from being a statement of the obvious, isn’t that exactly RCIPS’ job? Walton makes it sound like it’s something beyond the control of 400 plus police officers with one of the largest policing budgets per capita you could name.
When drugs held in evidence go ‘missing’ what hope do we have? I never heard the outcome of that one. When a K9 dog is left to die by the very people that are supposed to protect what hope do we have? Where are the prosecutions?
will keep asking:
my dashcam records hundred of incidents of dangerous driving every week.
why do rcips not want this footage?
why would a police department not want clear evidence of people breaking the law?
if i had video footage of robberies, would they want the footage?
will wait for answers
excuse the political incorrectness…but this is the only solution:
remove all caymanian/jamaican officers. replace them with brits, canadians, philipinos….etc.
then employ private sector firm to monitor/ report on performance of the service generally.
It’s a matter of wit and grit.
From experience both are missing in most of the Brit officers.
Overall they’re better off focusing on restoring community relations and confidence. ..through good old fashioned police work outside of ac cars
If a Brit officer does his job, he is accused of being Racist.
so police are effectively giving up???
Why not? Immigration, customs, and other regulators did years ago.
Time for direct rule before we become Jamaica.
Crime is totally out of control now.
lol, they’re ruling themselves towards an iceberg
police are a joke at enforcement of any laws…hence it is open season for real criminals
no time or respect for the police farce after the jon-jon incident. sorry.
Or First Cayman Bank. Or the Cabinet Status Grants. Or Trainergate…
Or the sex abusers duo recently convicted. Or the lock up raid of motorcycles. Or the lockup raid of drilugs and evidence. Or missing guns. Or Ms Anna. Etc
Or officer preying on elderly homeowner to transfer property…
And the horrible death of that lovely police dog.
A police press conference that emboldens the criminals, – whether that’s by design or not, the fact is based on this conference they have been pretty much useless. Tracking 14 people the Superintendent says is a challenge, let’s hope then it doesn’t get to twenty. 🙄
RCIPS has vetted CCTV footage, seized cars, interviewed people, etc., etc. They seem to have all the tools in the shed to detect and prosecute criminals except the SHARPEST tools – the human aspect, REAL Detectives!!
Morons in charge!
“our detectives can’t find di gunman dem, so please snitch to us on people who can and will threaten not only your life but your family’s.”
Really
Can’t
Investigate
Public
Situations
Height of incompetence. Forget the guns and theft – tell them the robbers were young Caymanians seen rolling a spliff while doing 5 mph over the speed limit and they’ll care then.
This is ridiculous. Armed robberies at restaurants and food trucks, citizens being robbed at ATMs, crooks committing robberies in stolen cars. We are a tiny 100 sq mile island with less than 80,000 residents, most of whom are one or two degrees of separation from each other. Everybody knows everybody here. RCIPS have huge resources at their disposal. If the cops can’t catch the crooks, it is either because they are incompetent, complicit or just don’t care.
If the RCIPS can’t stop these unprecedented crimes from ruining this tiny country, then the governor needs to bring in a task force from the UK or the US to round these guys up. I recall the government did something similar back in the 90’s. No more pussyfooting around with these wannabe gangsters!
“If the cops can’t catch the crooks, it is either because they are incompetent, complicit or just don’t care.”
They do care.
Complicit. Thats why they’ve been diligently not catching anyone
76 square miles
RCIPS needs a good CIS forensics department so they can gather DNA and collect solid evidence that will hold up in court. Trying to catch these criminals in the old fashion way in the heat of the crime, or by collecting fingerprints and watching select CCTV has proven to be useless.
The UK Police systems are not that sophisticated and local RCIPS should reach out to one of the Police/CIS units in South Florida who deal with this type of crime everyday in a much larger way and over a larger land mass than these 24 square miles we have that is surrounded by water. Bring them in for 3 months and clear up all of this crap.
If the RCIPS can’t or won’t think outside the box the criminals will always have their way.
By the way..not letting the politicians off easy. You need to pass stronger and stricter laws where 100% of sentences must be served..this stupidity of catch and release has to stop..The criminals just love our system and our jails are nothing more than a nice stopover hotel for a few months, complete with three meals a day, free medical care and exercise facilities..
Not sure about bringing in police from the US, but you are absolutely right about our ridiculously lenient sentencing and early release legislation has got to change our our little islands will continue going to he!! at a faster and faster pace. As it is, the tiny percentage of the violent criminals that are ever convicted serve the same short sentences whether they commit 1 violent crime or 100. We need mandatory consecutive sentences.
Why – are you afraid of the Miami Dade or BSO showing people up? Don’t be afraid to ask for professional help or will you wait until it is to late? Bury your pride and bring in undercover help that no one here even knows. Time to crush these cockroaches!
When we live on such a small island with a massive crime wave and the police ask for help well…..we know we screwed. Many of the police are suspended or fired already. Take a look where they all from
The RCIPS are losing experience hand over fist, and deploying those that know what they are doing to jobs they don’t want to do. There are no extra police officers, just more ineffective ones being put on overtime. And CNS, please ask why the helicopter has been grounded with no staff and no money for over three months that seems to tie in with the upsurge in robberies. Plenty of Superintendents though to reinvent wheels. Kind of top heavy.
It’s pretty obvious by now surely that some police officers must be protecting these people. We are the equivalent of a tiny town in the uk or us with large police numbers comparatively, in any other civilized country these criminals would be behind bars by now
I am glad to see Kurt walton stepping up,the Commissioner is not look like effective leader.
Time for Kurt to become Police Commissioner. He has trained in the RCIPS for decades and worked his way through effectively every position retaining the respect of everyone with whom he comes into contact. A solid, steadfast, no BS, right is right, wrong is wrong kinda guy. A good Bracker egg that one!
21 @ 12:15 pm – The same Kurt Walton, who took 6 hours to call me back when I was actively trailing a man who had held-up and robbed my Aunt of cash??
I followed the man from BT to GT and was on the phone with RCIPS all the way. He got off a bus and disappeared into the Scranton GT area, that’s when I stopped following but gave a complete description and last seen location to RCIPS.
“Esteemed” Kurt Walton called me 6 hours later “I hear you have information for the Police”.
That Kurt Walton for Commissioner???
They do generally protect their own
Absolutely
Stop and frisk works… employ it!!!
Let’s hear you say that again when you are pressed over the hood of your car with all your rights violated.
All of them? Now I’m aroused.
Not a chance I’m letting a cop search me without a warrant. Keep your Amerikkkan opinions to yourself and off of our island.
Cops don’t need a warrant to search you, only reasonable suspicion.
I may be overly critical here, but I don’t see these increased patrols and visibility. I rarely see a policeman or police walking the streets. We need high visibility foot patrol. Bobbies in the beat are non existent in cayman.
As a tourist coming down for a stay with the family, we don’t really feel safe this time reading all these headlines of armed robberies and a shooting and a stabbing right in the tourist area. Police warn not to carry cash, but we do not want all our credit cards to go in a robbery either and if we have nothing to offer said robber, that may cause them to shoot. These robberies are happening during early hours also. Feel for the local population who has to live with this mayhem happening in their community. Not comfortable heading to vacation. We live in the states, but our city has not ever had this level of crime. We can not get our money back on our trip or we would have rebooked for safer times.
I think that is the point! If you can see them so can the robbers. Hush being an armchair quarterback and let the Police do their work OMG man!
Complain Complain Complain ….This is what we get for giving Marl road a damn T&B License
9.99 for a lettuce. Daytime robbery, there’s your evidence. On a serious note surely if you track and covertly follow one of these creating you can find something to hold and interview him on, interrogate for 48 hours, get some info? Seems to me sadly, as hard working Brit expat, that the police are not doing enough.
Why are the CoP and the Governor not in the photo? They are the ones ultimately responsible for this. Talk about a lack of leadership.
8:30 – They were enjoying an extended meal. What’s your problem?
Here’s a better headline. “Police Need to GATHER Evidence to Put an end to Robberies”.
FFS. Do your god dam job.
Detectives and criminal investigators gather facts and collect evidence of crimes. They are being paid to do their jobs. Where is their professional pride? Sherlock Holmes is turning in his grave.
Bring back Derek Haines, he’s like our local version of Chuck Norris!
Poor Pete is in way over his head.
But he looks tough as nails in the picture
The people need to be able to trust the police with their safety, their information and their lives if they provide evidence. What are the police doing to ensure evidence providers remain known to a trusted few and what assurances are offered for their protection?
No lie, I haven’t seen a police officer on the road or on foot in weeks.
Two simple solutions:
1) park a cop at every single gas station (there’s not that many)
2) place plainclothes and armed cop inside every gas station and use the weapon once…crime will stop.
Criminals here have no fear of being shot at by civilians or cops which is perfectly fine in a world where the gun control is good and the criminals don’t have them. But here we have armed criminals and unarmed everyone else and a response time from police that is deplorable. So: no risk and still big reward.
Even if they do get caught nothing happens. We had a politician on camera beat the hell out of a woman, get convicted and spent zero minutes in jail for it.
Go visit Bahamas or tci for a weekend to get a glimpse of our future.
“Criminals here have no fear of being shot at by civilians or cops which is perfectly fine in a world where the gun control is good and the criminals don’t have them. But here we have armed criminals and unarmed everyone else and a response time from police that is deplorable. So: no risk and still big reward”
I would say it proves the point. The reason we do not have innocent bystanders or victims getting a bullet in the head or anything worse is because we don’t encourage open f***ing gunfights in the street like this is the O.K. Corral.
No methodology is perfect, but take one look at the active self protection youtube channel to see the madness that starts when people start shooting at each other in the street. Also, the madness that happens when the victims have no way to defend themselves and law and order descends into madness.
We need, a bunch of hard bastards from the real world, the UK, to come here, be put up in a gated community so they are not at risk (Saudi Arabia etc) and then they can crack on with the job. it’s hard to be an effective copper when some dick head Jamaican or Honduran can and will get your address from their girlfriends brother in the Firearms Unit whilst they are at Da Station or some dive bar in West Bay and then come threaten your family.
Police need evidence and Cayman needs POLICE! no law and order and no order in the law!
I suggest the RCIPS disables the ability for the squad car lights to always be on while the vehicle is in motion to help with catching these guys off guard.
From the first time I saw those new very bright blue lights constantly on installed I thought WHY?
From the time I first learned about changing ALL of our vehicle registration plates because a handful of criminals were swapping plates I thought WHY?
Why would CIG pay for such nonsense? Because I knew that surely our team of misfits that pass as police would still be nowhere to be seen and we would certainly not find the very significant outlay of expenditure as being of any use to curb or solve crime.
I’m sorry to say but Cayman’s entire political / police / judicial / prison systems are of no use…certainly not for what we’re paying for it!
Nah they can’t be swapping plates, they are tamper proof remember?
Unmarked cars might be a solution , that is the reason they are unmarked.
Let out on bail for a firearms related offense.
How can the court be so stupid?
Only it’s nearly 2023. Are these criminals savvy enough to use unique burner phones each time? Filter the location services data to the vicinity of each incident at that time and there will be same device IDs and numbers showing up and departing. Those are your suspects. Can we get all new police officers with brains?
Anyone working in telecoms can confirm that turning off location data is meaningless on an island where there are enough towers to triangulate a fairly precise location. The ex-jcf police don’t want to catch the criminals because they are complicit with the crimes.
Unless you are using a satphone independent of towers
Do you know how expensive those are???
Such nonsense!
Yeh cos criminals never us expensive equipment.
Evidence? The gas stations post their rates on those big boards every morning. What more robbery evidence do you need.
Ofreg haven’t updated in weeks!
Does Ofreg EVER do anything? I think they only help themselves or friends and family! What have they ever done for you?
These thugs have also learned that police bail is routine and that light sentences from the Court are the norm. The laws need to be changed to provide harsher penalties, and the Magistrates and Judges need to hand those penalties down.
He is saying that the criminals are smarter than the police. No surprise there!
The police have for the last 20 years let small anti social crimes go unpunished, that’s why we are in the position we are now.
You want to end this? Let the drug suppliers know that if the robberies don’t stop an outside agency (non-RCIPS) will be invited to come after them. It might not be the suppliers doing the robberies but if these ikkle stick up losers are creating a threat to the drug business the suppliers will put a stop to it for us.
What a very poor excuse. 1 conviction for 32 robberies where the ratio of police to population is one of the highest is totally unacceptable. The real problem is the police are just too afraid. Heard that from a cop myself. If drivers have no fear of speeding, using a cell phone, jake brakes etc then what do the criminals have to worry about?
Police are afraid? As a former officer I can assure you that’s not the case at all. It’s a great story though.
Maybe not you, but the one I spoke to openly admitted the crooks knew where they lived and what school their kids went too and not making any arrest.
As a former police officer perhaps you can explain why are there 31 unsolved robberies out of 32?
I got t-boned down School Rd by a known criminal, and the cop wouldn’t even stay in the area to take my information. She said I had to meet her back at the station because she felt unsafe there. The squad of ex-JCF cops we have here are absolutely overpaid cowards.
where is the Governor as he is in charge of the police
Are you saying the Governor should declare direct rule?
Yes. 100%. Replace the RCIPS with Military Police from the UK and let’s see what changes.
Sad but we know it will.
At this point, reluctantly believe direct rule is the only answer.
He is probably very busy with the new year awards
maybe star pulling over speeders and you find some idiots too
Police need to actually do their job and stop depending on the citizens to help. They are getting paid to investigate and patrol. If you circle prospect for 10 hours every night I guarantee you will catch shady people on the roads up to no good. But the police sit around waiting until they are called and then take their sweet time to get to the scene…only to then complain that they don’t have evidence. Set up a proper sting, set up undercovers, send the entire force to patrol the vulnerable areas. It is not that hard to come up with a few ideas and the RCIPS force have more than enough people to do the work. My previous experience with the RCIPS as led me to take matters into my own hands and I recommend everyone else do the same as the RCIPS will not come and save you.
We all need to be armed and take some real justice to the scum who are doing all these crimes. Once they know that their will be consequences for their actions then it will stop but until then they know it is all talk. Hell if the police can’t get it under control then bring in the British special armed forces as we will soon need marshal law.
Yeah, great plan. Let Joe Public loose with guns and watch them blast each other because they’ve been ‘disrespected’ in some pathetic manner 🙄.
Instead put some pressure on CIG to fix the serious vehicle licensing issues mentioned in the article which aren’t helping. Vehicles registered to individuals at addresses which don’t even exist.
I want my gun, you can sit in your ivory tower in the gated community but us out in th real world need some protection.
Guns will just be met with more guns
Silly comment. The USA proves guns create more deaths. And the USA should never be a model country for a uk overseas territory, the uk is above us constitutional garbage.
You are right, just bury your head and hope it all blows over and goes away.
Uh, your King James took away your ancestors right to bear arms so your ancestors left and started a few new country’s that allow people to defend themselves. Go back to your gray skies, bland food and monarchy. Dip shit!
Says the 300lb American paying thousands of dollars for medical care.
All quite ridiculous when set against the annual RCIPS budget. The country is wasting a fortune and getting little in the way of competent policing. An island as small as this should be easily locked down into searchable zones as soon as a burglary happens and every vehicle tracked using CCTV and other forms of monitoring. We are paying 21st century money and getting horse and buggy performance.
Wasting money by insisting police should be Jamaicans, who bring their families with them.
Nothing in Cayman would happen without Jamaican labour. They are the hardest working permit holders on island doing all of the unsung but critical work that too proud Caymanians will never “stoop” to do. That also includes policing. Fact.
Like they are not paid to do it…
Yes you are 100% correct, we need to be just like Jamaica. Seems like we are heading on the right path.
just cause labour from jam is cheap and you can often get them to pay for their own permit and dodge health insurance by using temp permits doesnt mean its required.
You left out “hardest working thieves!”
Agreed, no cayman police should be Jamaican by law
especially since JAM is supposedly becoming a fully independent Republic, they should not serve in our Gov and Police systems anymore. JAM will be a new foreign country that’s can be a national security risk to Cayman.
Better see what Saunders, Hew, Seymour and Big Mac have to say about that one