Cayman Islands are three islands surrounded by water. Read SEA.

Yes. Everyone of us is aware of that.

The RCIPS seized approx. 1,489lbs of illegal ganja last year! Street value; Approx. $1M.

Is that the removal of ALL ganja from our country?

Of course not.

How is ganja arriving here?

Mainly from the sea.

The number of people arrested for dealing cocaine in 2016 TRIPLED!

How is cocaine arriving here ?

Mainly from the sea.

16 Firearms were confiscated by the RCIPS in 2016.

How are firearms arriving here ?

Mainly from the sea.

What branch of our police force is in place to patrol our borders?

The RCIPS Joint Marine Unit.

A very important job.

A difficult one to patrol three islands.

Sea is the entry point for our major crime.

The RCIPS Joint Marine Unit is also employed in search and rescue.

Cayman Islands are three islands surrounded by water. Read SEA.

YES!

So……..?

A report by the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) was tabled in the Legislative Assembly last week.

Amongst other revelations in this report was this one concerning the RCIPS Joint Marine Unit:

It is down to 50% of the crew.
It is operating well below the complement originally intended.
Only 2 of its boats are in working order.
The maintenance budget for the unit has been cut in this year’s budget!
From $500,000 for a 12-month financial year to $270,000 for the current 18-month period!
The Cayman Islands are obligated in international law because of the treaties signed by the UK that includes its territories to have a modern, competent search and rescue service.

How has this been allowed to happen?

It makes absolutely no sense.

If you have a broken gate in a fence whoever and whatever behind it is going to escape. The cost of mending the fence is almost nothing to the cost of tracking down and finding what has escaped and you still have to repair the gate.

We cannot put a fence around our three islands so we have to resort to a Marine Unit.

One would expect this to be where the money would be spent. A stitch in time….

Not here in the Cayman Islands.

Our leaders cannot comprehend that we are three islands and we are surrounded by sea,

It makes more sense to them to allow the guns, the drugs, etc. to come into these islands and have more police officers running around trying to locate these drugs and guns, and provide more prosecutors to send them to a jail that is bursting at the seams.

“We are Islands but never too far, we are Islands
And I need your light tonight, and I need your light tonight,
We are Islands but never too far, we are Islands
And I need your light tonight, and I need your light tonight”
-Mike Oldfield