Cayman’s Police Association concerned about their members safety and security
In a statement from the Cayman Islands Police Association issued last Friday (15), president Rudolph Gordon said:
“The police association condemns these acts of violence against our officers who put their lives at risk daily to ensure communities are safe and are imploring our citizens to stand strong and collective against these types of deviant behaviours to ensure your families, visitors and investors can continue to live and do business in a safe and peaceful community without the fear of personal injury.
“The association is asking our citizens to take personal responsibility in helping to eradicate what appears to be an emerging hostile environment toward law enforcement and reminds the community that this type of behaviour is what destroyed the peace and tranquillity in other jurisdictions.”
“The police association asks the community to remember that police officers are chosen from the same society as everyone else who lives in the Cayman Islands.
This places them at greater risk and requires community efforts to ensure [officers] are safe and treated respectfully.”
The statement was in response to the number of recent incidents where officers have been attacked and/or shot at by suspects the police have been trying to apprehend.
On 23rd March, 2013, during a crowd control assignment at East End, a rock was apparently thrown at a Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Uniform Support Officer, striking his head and sending him to the hospital with a fractured skull.
The latest incident was last Thursday (14) when shots were fired at police officers at the end of a pursuit in the Lakeside Villas Complex in George Town, which backs on to Dog City where the suspects made their escape on foot.
All four suspects have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and firearms offences but have been released on police bail while the investigation continues.
