Crime plan falls short

(CNS): The leader of the opposition says people will be disappointed with the long awaited national crime strategy because, despite being a well researched document, it does nothing to address the immediate issues facing the community. Alden McLaughlin said government must take ownership of the current rise in violent crime. The new report, which has been in the works for well over a year, has some excellent proposals to tackle the issue of criminality in the long term, he revealed, but it falls short of what people are expecting when it comes to protecting them from violent robbers. With criminals getting away with daylight robbery – literally -- Cayman has to change its approach to policing, the PPM leader has said. (Photo Dennie WarrenJr)

Speaking at a public meeting in the Bodden Town district hosted by his fellow MLA Anthony Eden, McLaughlin said that the National Security Council’s crime strategy report, which has finally been revealed to members of the Legislative Assembly, contains import information and potentially long term solutions, but no immediate solutions to protect people from the surge in robberies.

The document, which has not yet been adopted by Cabinet, addresses the root cause of crime and the social issues that have fuelled its increase. The report, he said, was a comprehensive look at failures where children are concerned, programmes that have not worked, and a lack of rehabilitation in the prison system, all of which he said were important.

“The report deals with the causes of crime, and there is much that is good in the report, but in the short term we have to deal with issues that confront people on an almost daily basis,” McLaughlin stated. With four bank robberies in just over one year, none of which have been solved, the people were scared and the robbers were facing no deterrent as they were being rewarded for their crime, he added. “We need an immediate plan to deal with the crime that is facing us every day,” McLaughlin told the district audience.

He said the most recent statistics from the RCIPS showing a decline in overall crime did not reflect the reality of how people felt, and with a more than 200% increase in robberies the overall reduction did not instil confidence as it was these crimes that were frightening people.

“We have to change our approach to the way we police and how we manage our security,” McLaughlin told the audience at the district meeting. “I am not an advocate of arming police but it is clear at moment there is no deterrent, especially when bank robbers are getting away with it.”

He said the question had to be how can the safety of customers and staff at a bank be ensured if someone can walk up to a security guard and put a gun to his head and rob the customers?

“We have to accept Cayman has changed,” he added. Echoing the sentiments of the community as a whole, he said it was only a matter of time before somebody gets seriously hurt or killed during a robbery.

The immediate problem of crime had to be addressed through policing, McLaughlin said, adding that law enforcement is down to two fundamental things: one is resources and the other expertise to deal with detection. “Somewhere we are failing,” he said. “The current government will not own the problem and it keeps pushing the issue on to the governor.”

He was not suggesting a PPM government could have resolved it overnight, he said, “but we wouldn’t have stopped pushing to try and address the short term issues.”

Crime is nothing new, he noted, but said Hurricane Ivan was the watershed for the Cayman Islands when it came to social behaviour and crime. In the wake of the disaster the island witnessed lawlessness and criminality never seen before and it had been difficult to get the genie back in bottle.

He pointed out that the previous government had focused on addressing crime, especially with resources, despite it being the responsibility of the governor. With the introduction of the National Security Council under the new constitution, he said the elected armed of government now had more power as the government was bound to take the council’s advice.

“The government is playing down its role on national security so it can avoid accepting responsibility,” McLaughlin said.