Low pay, long hours drive police off the beat
(CNS): The RCIPS is losing cops as fast as it is recruiting them, Police Commissioner Kurt Walton said this week as he explained the legacy issues relating to poor pay across the service that are driving some of his best staff away, with some moving into the private sector and doubling their salaries. Asked about the CI$7.7 million added to the 2024 police budget, earlier this year by Cabinet, Walton said it was needed to start equalising the RCIPS pay structure and address the recruitment gaps.
He said that there were salary inequities, especially in the lower and mid ranks, and the service had asked for another CI$2 million to begin the process of resolving these historic pay issues. Noting that this was a longstanding issue that two previous commissioners had tried to put right, he said, “I’m hoping to rectify that problem once and for all… It’s not a salary increase; it is a salary equalisation project.”
The commissioner said the rest of the money was to increase the RCIPS headcount. “We are struggling to meet the demands across all areas,” Walton said. “I’m struggling in traffic. I’m struggling in community policing. I’m struggling across specialist operations.”
He believes that to properly police the Cayman Islands and give the RCIPS the best opportunity to make the country safe, he needs another 75 officers. However, attrition across the force is having a detrimental impact, with the traffic unit alone down 38% of the numbers required. Walton explained that the service recruited 31 new officers last year, but another 34 left.
He said that time and again in exit interviews, officers’ main reason for leaving is for more pay and fewer hours. Walton said he is battling to keep staff on board as he competes in a very challenging labour market that is literally talent spotting his staff and offering them more money.
He said he lost two people last year from the RCIPS digital forensic hub to the private sector, one of whom doubled their salary, and another was offered $20,000 per year more than their police salary at the time to go to a statutory authority. “That’s my problem,” Walton said as he lamented the loss of great, genuine people because he could not match the pay to keep them.
Currently, a newly promoted sergeant can spend months studying for the exam and months preparing for the promotion process, but when they are successful, they make CI$45 per month more than the eight or ten constables that they are now supervising.
“That can’t be right,” Walton said as he advocated for improved pay. “I have to try to rectify that. This is not an issue that started yesterday. This is a longstanding issue that has been ongoing now for a while.”
The commissioner said he is hopeful that the annual police budget will increase next year, as the RCIPS has been well supported by the government in previous budgets. He said that the management team has spent a lot of time looking at the retention and pay problems to pull together realistic requests for money, as he described a “deep dive analysis” of the service’s needs.
Walton said that more pay to keep staff will go hand in hand with more investment in technology, which will also help with meeting the growing demands on the service.
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Kurt needs to put his big boy pants on and start with his deputy who is as elusive as Lord Lucan, delivers little to nothing and subverts progress. Then the latest new Supts appointed by Byrne. 3 of whom are barely literate and over promoted by at least 3 ranks. Recruitment is a shambles with a shocking attrition rate. Why would any bright motivated Caymanian stay once they realized they were way cleverer than their bosses. Sort it out Kurt or step aside. Public confidence at an all time low.
Walton is a very decent man and the pay discrepancies have been an issue for a long time. I’m expat ex-RCIPS and was working with people with half my service getting $1500 a month more than me! The pay banding was NEVER adhered to by Byrne. He refused to pay legitimate allowances and had to be taken to court (and lost) for taking annual leave from staff. A wholesale review from top to bottom is required and the numerous passengers
fired. People with the same service should get the same wage and not be allowed to negotiate their own wages which has been happening for years.
An organisation cannot be expected to rise in quality and performance above its top decision makers.
As long as we have overstuffed, under-worked, under-qualified, and under-performing members of parliament who who are lavishly over-compensated for what little they actually accomplish, we will continue to have issues with the rest of the system.
The buck does not stop with Kurt Walton or other civil servants in such positions. Neither does it stop with parliament. The blame lies with the voters of the Cayman Islands: the ultimate decision makers who continually make poor decisions and place in power and sustain a parliament that is composed of a goodly number of under-qualified, overstuffed, lazy, and under-performing freeloaders collecting obscenely lavish paychecks for accomplishing very little.
A people get the leadership they deserve, and right now, the people of the Cayman Islands deserve every bit of dysfunction this territory is drowning in. Unless and until the voters of the Cayman Islands collectively decide to do better, the system will not improve and the country will continue to rot from the top down.
yawn..what waffle…
rcips is over staffed and under worked and above all, poorly managed.
just another day in the civil service wonderland
FY2023 = 483 employees, 51 of those are Sergeants, 20 Inspectors. 307 of them, 63% are over 40 and seemingly can’t read, understand, and/or enforce our laws. 10% of those are British, 30% are Jamaican, just under half are Caymanian. For the Coast Guard, 34 employees, mostly kids under 40, all but two are Caymanian. A Traffic Dept of unknown staffing averaged to tally just 12 speeding tickets per day in the year. Mysteriously, there are 389 licensed firearm permits, and that’s without an operational gun club! Who are these people?
https://www.rcips.ky/about/organisational-documents/
6.44pm Half the “Caymanians” are from Jamaica. Therin is half the problem.
Legalize weed, the criminals will be feeling too relaxed to even get off their asses!
Can confirm, just got a lb of freshly harvested homegrown weed discretely delivered to me for my personal enjoyment in my mansion’s backyard, while RCIPS wastes time chasing minimum wage workers for a spliff.
Legalize this medically prescibed plant or leave it illegal and make the black market continue to profit by bringing it with guns.. at least i give these boys who would rather rob you with a gun a more honest living.
Newsflash: unna na stopping consumption by harping reefer madness propanganda that you bought into in the 70s, teedee. Let me bun my ganja and eat food in my backyard in peace – i rather do that than drink and drive from a bar, real talk.
Another Massive F department….the (F) is for Failing, this and the ODDP office are total failures over the last 20 years! Until the Cayman islands Government gets a pair and fire all the top brass and Prosecutors the situation in Cayman will not improve.
Always “we need more money”, its now a joke really.
There’s another side to this story. People are paid for the market value of what they bring to the table in any job. If any of our RCIP officers were capable of earning more money for their talent in other fields or jurisdictions, they would do so. If they were adding significant value here which justified an increase in their salaries, then they would get it.
I don’t think you could find one resident (Caymanian or otherwise) in this country who is NOT RCIPS affiliated, to say we should pay police more for what they do.
What they do, appears to be, basically nothing. We have a huge issue with auto accidents and deaths, and attribute it to poor driving, yet we have virtually zero traffic enforcement.
We have a DUI problem, and virtually zero DUI enforcement.
We had a mass shooting with gunman not wearing masks and we’ve had virtually zero progress made.
We had a witness in a murder trial lured to the beach by his friend and executed like you see in the movies.
Mr. Walton is doing part of his job by standing up for his staff. The other part he needs to do is fire most of the staff abusing the system. Get rid of all the crappy cops who aren’t pulling their weight and he will have much more support from the public for funding the good ones.
Otherwise, the public will continue to feel like they’re getting less than what they pay for. And since we get virtually zero…we should be paying virtually zero.
Not totally true. I took a significant pay cut to become an officer. Money is not the be-all-and-end-all for everyone, although I accept it was an unusual situation. I also personally know of very intelligent officers who could easily make more money elsewhere, but they want to be police officers. Again, these officers are in the minority, but don’t think they don’t exist.
The problem with RCIPS, is that they do tend to keep the dross as well as the better officers, simply as they have slim pickings to replace them.
This idea of recruiting solely Caymanians is a pipe dream. There’s simply not enough of them who want to be, or are able to be, police officers. With the size of the jurisdiction, it’s also highly likely that they’d be arresting (or not) friends and family. Cayman is a reflection of the society here, which explains why there are so many Jamaican officers.
Personally, I’d recruit officers from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, particularly when it comes to traffic policing.
The governor needs to hire a management consultant team to review the internal operational culture at the RCIPS, accept their independent findings, terminate the heft of non-performing top tier managers, delete any too-nervous-to-work entry level officer hires, and recruit a reliable stable of mid-pay grade experienced foreign officers that can read and write, and will come here to enforce our laws = the service and protection part. We shouldn’t care where they come from or what they look like so long as the job gets done. Fire all the racists.
“hire expats because the Caymanians will give a bly to their Caymanian counterparts”
Said the expat, who ignores the evident prevalence of XXXX nationality giving blys to their fellow countrymen.
I purposely X’d it, but i’ll give you a hint as a Caymanian officer who resigned from the Service, that nationality starts with Ja.
Yes, I agree with your point, but at this stage there’s enough Caymanian-Jamaicans to make it a moot point. For sure some Jamaican officers will give a bly to Jamaicans, but I have seen it the other way, and Jamaican officers going all in on Jamaicans, too, because of that. Some officers are embarrassed by fellow Jamaicans, others, not so much.
The main issue isn’t Jamaican officers, it’s terrible, lazy officers who remain in their posts.
Just wished BT Police did their jobs with traffic voting from the Eastern districts.
1. Diviserify your force now. One particular nationality is spoiling what reputation your force still has;
2. Your salaries and perks are already too high for the amount of work your officers do toward solving crimes in Cayman;
3. Carryout an extensive investigation as to why your force can’t retain Caymanians and implement your findings;
4. Until 1 – 3 is carried out, the general populace isn’t going to see the RCIPS in a favourable light.
This picture in itself speaks a million words who is he flanked by on both sides not one Caymanian and why is that is the greatest question. Low wages and long hours a police officer life Mr Commissioner! What you got to say about this mr DG ?
I joined the force in the early 80s. My monthly wages was $1000 CI per month. Even though at that Crime was not as bad now, POLICE OFFICERS had the Force at heart and solved crime. Hardly a case went Cold Case. We were dedicated officers and would go the extra mile. Beat Officers was seen patrolling all over Cayman Islands which has now become extinct. All you can now see, so called police officers driving in police vehicles, busy on their phones. Kurt I think one problem is the quality of officers you are hiring. These nannies, domestic helpers. Cleaners, gas attendants, low skilled workers have certainly brought down the MORALS of the RCIPS. I believe that this is the only Police Service that hires these kind of people. They are only using the Force as an escape route to get papers and when they do they moved on. The Force needs to get back to Real Policing with professional and dedicated officers. In our days we toiled and laboured without any complaints, on widow’s mite pay. I am so disheartened to see what my RCIPS service has come to. It is such a pity we can’t relive the past. Get back officers on the beat! Do you still have refresher’s course for officers. Get these lazy ones on Beach Patrol walking on the Seven Mile Beach Stretch instead of driving around with car windows up. Does these Seniors Officers make spot checks on Officers on the night shifts. Complaining and whining are not the best solutions. Moral and Ethics are totally lacking and until you upgrade them the bars for effective policing will be very low.
What Mr Walton is also not saying is that they cannot attract the caliber of police officers that is needed because there’s too many officers from one particular jurisdiction who are aggressive they are competitive and they only want to see their own kind in the force and elsewhere. No one wants to deal with that not Caymanians not Nationals from other Caribbean countries and other more developed countries such as the UK or Canada or the US. 20 years ago or longer we had officers from different Caribbean West Indian jurisdictions. No one wants to work where morale is very low certain nationalities are favored from the top down. Watch what happens to Cayman in the next 4 years if this government does not take a handle on it.
When you have a deranged loose neck finance manager managing the police records office after overthrowing a 30-year hard-working veteran and her terrorizing staff members yet favoring her Jamaican counterparts that is something that should be talked about. When Caymanians feel they do not want to go on the job. A Caymanian who was overly qualified as a legal advisor bullied and harassed on the job (I worked with her and watched it happens daily for weeks) for being an educated, qualified Caymanian and the sister of an MP. Imagine that. That is why they cannot retain staff.
Most Caymanians prefer to work in the Civil Service where salaries are higher, hours are shorter and most do not have to answer the phone.
“most do not have to answer the phone.”
Except their personal phones, on which they spend most of their day.
Well said, Amen!!!
Say it Loud.
Isn’t littering against the law? Surge of various leaflets over past two weeks on car window screen, car door handles, stuffed in front door, on door handle, on the floor. This is not 1960’s, it is an invasion of privacy and property. We are supposed to pick it up and put it in the garbage? Do not put it there in the first place. Isn’t littering against the law? Where are they getting the money to produce such colourful, multi paged, expensive ‘adverts’, churches have so much money…
Digicel, C3 too. Have money from us paying their high rates. They paying a leaflet distributor too..?
These staffing and productivity gaps stem from deep seated managerial culture problems. The RCIPS needs to fire some of its senior leadership that are unable to lead or delegate, pulling in 6 figures to lean back in plush office chairs, while attempting to hire minimum wage pawns to effect the police work mission via osmosis. These managers have for too long been comfortable doing the minimum, have no genuine interest in serving the public, and should be let go. Cayman deserves much better.
A friend of mine resigned and discouraged me from applying because she said the morale was absolutely shxt in there, and being the one Caymanian in a room of 10 people felt out-of-place, amplifying her discomfort there.
I’m not anti-expat but take that how you will, because on the other hand I do agree we have a runaway immigration issue currently in progress.
Low pay? Perhaps they are paid by what they do? Long hours, no work!!
Find Judiann’s murderer!!!
Thank you Commissioner Walton for your determination to keep our islands safe. Look at what’s happening in Anguilla and TCI. Two small British territories that are dealing with the scourge of gun violence. We should all be behind our police service and the commissioner and his men and women. I know this man and can tell you there’s no other in our country with his passion to protect us. Now the others charged with border protection need to step up to the plate and do the same. Mr. Walton puts himself out there taking the full brunt of it all and doesn’t seem to flinch at all but I can only imagine what goes through his mind.
I was a performing Caymanian Sergeant in the service for over 30+yrs. I retired. I would have stayed but for the issues that I experienced.
1) I was doing the job of three Sergeants and two Inspectors in three different parts on my shift,plus called in on my days off. My pay became an issue after over a year of this because the RCIPS DOES NOT pay overtime, you ONLY get TIME IN LEU.
2) I had to work under persons, and I will be frank here so some people will not like it, but I was under other officers from Jaimaca who were promoted, even though in a real proffessional organization they could not even be left to supervise a gate.
3) There are Senior Jamiacan officers who do whatever it takes for other Jamaican officers to get promoted over Caymanians. XXXX and XXXX are two PRIME examples. The GIVE other fellow country men the promotion exam answers two days before the exams. This has been proven.
3) Senior Caymanian officers DO NOT like to promote, or even retain Caymanian officers, because they fear that these other Caymanians will overtake them and do a better job.
4) As a recent retiree I was never given an exit interview, so this is false.
5) Its widely known that IF you are NOT a part of the “Old Boy” network, and loyal to certain Senior Command officers no matter what, then you will never get Promoted
Until the old boy network within the service is removed things will only stay the same.
These are facts.
disgusting comments here. you should all be ashamed of yourselves. no wonder people are leaving when the public is treating them this way.
Thank God, make their asses keep going
Stop hiring lazy from the Caribbean.
Recruit in USA or Canada and you’ll get real policing not this 3rd world or Western European liberal crap.
Really??? USA cops? Mounties on horses would be a vision, you gonna clean up the roads, manure good for gardening.
You can keep your racist cops in the states and Canada. We do not want them nor will they be welcomed
We already have racist cops…
The other problem the commissioner isn’t addressing is that other government departments get paid overtime and the police only time in lieu and this has been always the case. Who deserves OT a customs officer who sits behind a desk at the airport stamping visitors passports or fireman who sleeps in a bed at the fire depot on shift ( not that Im disrespecting their service) or a police officer who gets stuck doing 30+ hour shifts if not more? In fact some of these officers have months owed to them and will never get the time off due to lack of management.
I do also agree the police officers are under paid and by a hell of a lot, not matter a Jr constable or Sargent. I’m sure if you were to see my two items above done, we’d see better officers and my re productivity as of right now the moral in the police is sh… & we are hiring low standard personal.
My department doesn’t pay. Only time in lieu.
its not bad pay for doing nothing
As a former officer, I beg you to try it. As a response officer, you’re committed to 12 hour shifts that go from day to night and absolutely ruin your natural sleep patterns.
Anyone who works antisocial shifts will appreciate this. Now, combine this with dealing with death, chaos, violence, and time wasters.
There’s plenty of terrible staff, but there’s also many amazing ones who are tarred with the brush of others.
the 2 officers that were offered more money in the private sector is by no means the norm kurt so please stop it.
@6:55:
I shall tend to agree the two examples may not represent the norm; however, you not know that they are extreme cases and do not represent the “norm”.
Over decades I have become familiar with many officers.
Morale in the force became a problem many years ago and has gotten progressively worse.
The likely norm is that a goodly number of officers–feeling underpaid, underappreciated, disheartened (and rightly so)–stay on the force and do a halfhearted job. For many officers this becomes intolerable and they finally leave the force. THIS is what has to stop! Improve the pay, moderate or compensate for the working hours, and improve overall morale and the force will improve.
Now to more incisively deal with your silly comment: You apparently need a course in reading skills. Kurt gave two (possibly extreme) examples. However, such examples of wage improvements upon taking on other employment may not be the “norm”. Kurt did not proffer them as the norm. Kurt was quite clear that the norm is that low pay and long hours are the “main” reasons for leaving given by many of the officers who quit: “He (Kurt) said that time and again in exit interviews, officers’ main reason for leaving is for more pay and fewer hours.” (Missed that huh?.)
What you clearly missed is that the norm is officers are leaving at a rate that recruitment is struggling to keep up with. But rather than supporting Kurt and upholding improvements to RCIPS working conditions and salary, you nit-pick at Kurt’s examples. How utterly pathetic!
cry harder.
@3:37:
I note that you are one of those cretins who post deficient snippets attacking the messenger because you likely have neither the skill not the intellect to address the message.
Try harder.
Body cameras for police on duty and in police vehicles dashcams (front and rear) please.
Agreed! And more UNMARKED police cars / patrols!
Wait until the civil service roll over
You’ll have a total of 20 officers left!
in my opinion the majority of them are paid for doing absolutely NOTHING!!!
Past CIG regimes have seemed to prefer an ineffectual and stood-down RCIPS. Perhaps, as suggested by a former Governor, they were exercising their political position to stoke the illicit transshipment “third pillars” of the economy. Better too, for corrupt extortion purposes, if those recruits have exposed family members back in Jamaica.
If the 34 officers who left the Force were recruited from abroad did they return to their home countries?
If they’ve obtained employment here in accordance with the laws, what does it matter?
“left the force” AKA shown the door politely due to unsavoury links with their fellow Jamaicans I’m sure.
nahhh.. more money for them to continue to do nothing but harass non deserving people. TEACH them how to react and handle different situations and how to handle people first.
…and realise who the liars are to protect themselves by calling the Police first, wasting Police time, when they are the ones that did wrong, especially people renting who think they own the place. The person who has been assaulted receives a warning.
cry me a river. Cut the force in half, give the remaining officers a 50% pay raise, and then MAKE SURE THEY”RE DOING THEIR JOBS, and this will be a peaceful and safe paradise.
There isn’t any parity between specialist investigation departments in RCIPS compared to external low performing investigation units like the anti-corruption commission.
Why work in an environment where you have 15-20 cases when you can chillax in the ACC and get paid $20k more.
How many high flying Caymanian RCIPS officers have received sponsorship and funding for a law degree, only to resign and leverage their newly acquired qualifications in the private sector or higher-paying government roles?
The lack of a structured retention agreement—such as a mandatory five-year service commitment, common in public and private sectors abroad—means they inadvertently contribute to their own staffing challenges. Implementing such measures could help secure long-term benefits for the force and ensure that investment in legal education translates into lasting contributions to law enforcement.
You are absolutely correct! And this is happening in other government departments also.
Unfortunately, the easiest and most often touted solution is “more staff and more money needed”.
There’s many frustrations.
Uncomfortable response officer uniforms, somehow designed to be thoroughly unsuitable for the tropics. Colleagues that cannot drive. Inability to deal with minor traffic offenses with a ticket (eg tires with insufficient tread, that needs a full report creating), paper tickets in triplicate which are then entered into a computer, dealing with the same ‘clients’ on the regular because mental health or other community outreach isn’t very good, poor pay, poor options for advancement if your face doesn’t fit etc.
Poor spelling and grammar.
I tapped that message out on a cell phone screen. I’m not losing any sleep with grammatical formatting.
Your post did remind me of another issue working as an officer; dealing with pricks with few redeeming features.
Ah, tapped it out on a cell phone screen, not in triplicate, which then entered into a computer. Hard life!
…’dealing with pricks with few redeeming features.’ perfect ‘officer’ attitude! Tired or tyred?
Not really. The 5% of the population that bring virtually nothing of note to society, they’re the ones that police spend most of their time dealing with.
Tired or tired? You know both are acceptable and understood. Colour or color, they’re both fine. Numbnuts.
@5:51pm: Please add the lack of analytical skills. The solid foundation for a successful court case is the police report, the evidence gathered and the police officers’ statements during trial. Government loses too many cases because police officers lack the required skills from the get go.
True, give a statement to the Police, can hardly write English, spelling and grammar is unknown.
Can we cut politicians’ salaries, cut civil service benefits (incl. healthcare in retirement), terminate the NAU, and redirect the funds to the police, please. They earn their money.
I’m being genuine when I tell you that this question is coming from a place of love: are you literally on crack?
Agree…except redirect to Seniors who worked all their lives until retirement age.
Most of them don’t.
@1:22pm: I agree that MPs salaries could be less; beyond that, I suspect your suggestion comes from the misconception that civil servants do not work (incorrect) and that DFA (formerly NAU) is not needed (also incorrect). At any given hour of the day, while you sleep or relax or spend time with loved ones and family, the civil service machinery is at work. 911, hospital, pharmacy, police, fire department, customs, immigration, Coast Guard, Regiment. The civil service also provides you with the ability to request medicine refills by WhattsApp, apply for a scholarship, relicense your car, request a police record, renew your passport, reserve a beach cabana, and a myriad other services *without leaving your bed*. We do not appreciate what we have, until we travel somewhere and realize such services are not available there. Then we miss Cayman—and the civil service!
“Cut healthcare benefits in retirement”. Ah, 1:22, that good old Caymanian Christian approach to fellow humans.
You have to read between the lines of what Walton is saying. More pay will attract quality people and rid us of the poor quality Police we have. It will also retain the good ones.
The issue is that there is no transparency within the very agency, which among other things, is tasked with supervising transparency and anti-corruption efforts. The Public hasn’t asked the RCIPS to prepare and publish a generalized Flow Sheet of how they spend $220mln on the 400 officers we can’t see. It infers some $550,000 spent per full-time officer, including operational, equipment, and maintenance costs. Even with some spillage, one might reasonably expect a far different managerial appraisal from that committed spend than “send more money”. Like any senior public manager entrusted with a hundred million budget, Walton should as CoP qualify his managerial work efficacy through verifiable accounts, or be let go. The era of limitless unquestioned spend in CIG needs to end.
If a Caymanian wants a large salary with a lavish expemse allowance, short hours, and no supervision, stand for election as an M.P.
Like the politicians…
Solve some crimes first?