The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service has made the public aware of how they are hard pressed to attend to the proper policing the Cayman Islands deserves because of manpower.

They still have it on their radar to “focus” on the speeding and racing going on at night on the wide stretch of Shamrock Road by the Cayman Drama Society’s (CDS) Prospect Playhouse. They have been told about it and knew about it before the accident that occurred there on Sunday 3^rd March just after 1:00am.

It was a miracle the two young drivers of the vehicles that hit the CDS sign and the jerk chicken stand escaped without serious injury to themselves.

We had the case of former Sister Islands MLA Lyndon Martin who was accused of stealing stolen items worth a total of $4.10 from a store last April. $4.10! What was it a couple of containers of toothpicks!

Yes, I know stealing is stealing but……..

Nearly a year later we have learnt all charges against Mr. Martin have been dropped.

How much wasted money did we taxpayers have to fork out for the RCIPS to execute their investigations into this heinous offence? Worse, how much time did it take up to come to this conclusion when the man hours could be better spent on the proper policing.

Only today (12) we have an elderly lady robbed by a young low life on a bicycle who grabbed her necklace from behind ripping it from her neck. She was walking close to the busy Shedden Road in the centre of George Town.

No police in sight.

A few years ago my wife and I reported our dog had found a plastic sachet that was half filled with cocaine in our garden that backs on to Dog City in George Town just off the West Bay Road. We were told the RCIPS were very busy and could we bring it in and drop it off at the George Town police station. I replied “No”. We are still waiting for them to appear but after two days of the find I flushed it down the toilet. There was so much of it the stuff filled the air and my nose was filled with it. I was sneezing for the best part of the morning.

My wife was attacked in her garden by three pit bulls who were not leashed and she had to fight them off with a broom. She informed the RCIPS but the police were too busy and no one had actually got hurt. No one came by.

However, one of our tenants, who lives below us on the ground floor of our dwelling house parked his car immediately outside our property on the piece of the road we actually own that adjoins Helen Drive. The car is a tiny Honda van and was parked during the night under a streetlight. The width of the vehicular way at that point is 20 feet. A police officer drove past the tiny van on February 27^th at 3:04am and said it was causing an obstruction and placed a ticket carrying a $100 fine on the car windscreen.

At 7:00am the same morning I drove past the same car, parked in the same place on our own private piece of the vehicular way to go to church. My car is a large Ford Explorer!

To try and save the time the police don’t have, plus the court time, and the expense of prosecuting an offence that is clearly not one, my wife went to the George Town police station. She should not have wasted her time, nor the police officer’s she spoke to there because her explanation was of no interest. She was advised to accompany the tenant to the Summary Court.

Maybe the police officer who wrote up the ticket had been told he had to reach a required quota of tickets for the month as it was drawing to a close. I can find no other reason.

Of course, required quotas don’t go on here.

And I have been a champion for the Cayman Islands police whenever I can. The only time I got a black mark from them was because I wrote a piece complaining of an officer’s gobbledegook when a plain and concise sentence, in my humble opinion, had been warranted. I was rude and I admitted it.

The police must have the respect, trust and co-operation of the public. They do a pretty frightening job now with armed criminals running around our streets looking for little old ladies or banks to rob and our law officers are mainly unarmed.

With respect, they don’t need to bog themselves down with this nonsense. They don’t have the time to waste. The court does not have the time to waste. And neither does the public.

And the RCIPS do need the public just as much as we need them.