By Peter Polack

Peter Polack

The Ivy League universities may be looking into the wave of new Cayman Islands anti-crime strategies with a hope that they could be extended to the Caribbean and worldwide.

Crime by appointment. The first and most recent technique by a senior Cayman police officer is called crime by appointment. After years of the obligatory but imaginary data collection, peer review and maybe AI verification there is a new phenomenon called crime hotspot during peak times of offending or in short, crime by appointment. The entire world sits in bated breath waiting for the data and conclusions on the concept of peak times of offending. The new minister of home affairs must be very proud and the UK police college at Bramshill are waiting on this new crime fighting revelation as well as the underlying data.

Protect yourself. The Cayman Islands has recently granted an annual budget of nearly CI$75 million to their police or almost US$ 100 million, or over US1,000 per person, compared to US$100 per person for Jamaica, and Cayman has a significant foreign worker population. The besieged business community have been told to bolster their security at their own cost starting with the police highly rated buzzer device. Good luck with that.

Press release. Shortly after the announcement of yet another police operation this December, a local jewellery store, close to police headquarters , was robbed. The Commissioner of Police then trotted out yet another press release about additional personnel and public assistance. It is Christmas and people want safety from those entrusted with the same. The public already know the Minister of Home Affairs and Commissioner have despatched necessary personnel overseas, that there is a shortage of staff and problem of excessive departures from the service. Perhaps it would be helpful if the police provided empirical proof of crime suppression by the not one but two expensive helicopters and the cost of same. If the UK government is using the Cayman budget to safeguard their Caribbean possessions, then they should go gospel with the nation.

Mask prohibition. Recently proposed by a minister with a significant record, but not in robbery, it is the last but most ridiculous suggestion foisted on voters wrongly thought to be blind, deaf and dumb. They know this silly prohibition, like others, will not work. Masks of under a dollar are used by criminals to defeat expensive camera systems, to be discarded post offence to allow the criminal to be a fish among the fishes. Has the breathalyzer limits stopped drunk driving?

The time has come to address the root causes of crime, not to feed a bloated security machine that does not work, will not work and is in the end, a swamp of ineffective talking points.

The present Cayman Islands theory is the detection, suppression, arrest, conviction and imprisonment of offenders with little or no resources directed to the prevention of crime generally or in any specific instance to divert offenders, especially youthful ones, away from a future of crime or social disorder.

The entire system needs a complete change from top to bottom.

This may be familiar in your own country.

They continue to reap what they sow.

Notes

https://www.caymancompass.com/2025/08/27/business-sector-calls-for-action-to-curtail-robberies

OPINION: Caribbean Crime Conundrum – By Appointment Only

https://caymanmarlroad.com/2025/12/15/bryan-moves-to-unmask-crime-with-new-mask-restriction-motion

Polack Post: Caribbean Policing – Cayman the Crime Capital?

https://www.rcips.ky/statement-from-the-commissioner-of-police-on-robbery-incidents-13-december

https://www.caymancompass.com/2025/12/15/police-respond-to-armed-robbery-at-jewelry-store

https://www.rcips.ky/new-rcips-helicopter-arrives-on-island

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88. 

His views are his own.