Cops assaulted during GT arrest

(CNS): Two Royal Cayman Island Police Service officers ended up in hospital Monday after they arrested a 19-year-old man who then became verbally and physically aggressive towards the officers and resisted arrest. During the struggle a watch that one of the officers was wearing was damaged and both officers received non-life-threatening-injuries. The police officers were responding to a report of an altercation on Eastern Avenue, George Town, between a man and a woman, who knew each other.

Police said that after speaking with both of them about the incident, the officers informed the man, who lives in George Town, that he was under arrest on suspicion of assault, insulting the modesty of a woman, causing fear of provocation of violence and theft.

The man became violent but was eventually subdued and taken into custody. He was then further arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest, damage to property and assaulting police. The officers were treated at the hospital and later released.

At the beginning of this month, when police released the crime figures for 2018, they reported an increase in the number of assaults sustained by officers during the course of their work. The RCIPS management made it clear at the time that they would pursue offenders to the full extent of the law.

In 2018 fifteen people were charged with assaulting police, a slight increase on the 13 people charged the year before. In two instances in 2017 people were charged with grievous bodily harm after officers were badly beaten.

“These serious assaults sparked concerns among the community, government partners, the media and officers when they occurred in 2017, and has sustained public interest in this issue throughout 2018,” police said in their crime report, noting that last year there were no further cases of serious injury to police officers on the job.

“The RCIPS maintains that assaults against officers undermine the very foundation of the relationship between the community and those sworn to protect it, and is a challenge to the overall peace and security of the islands,” the service stated.