For a better experience on RCIPS, UPDATE YOUR BROWSER. The Community Policing Department (CPD) drives the proactive engagement of the RCIPS with the community through its officers, who are assigned to certain areas, or “beats”, throughout the districts, and seek to identify and address common public safety concerns through collaborative partnerships with community members.
According to the principles of neighbourhood policing, which is broadly practiced in many jurisdictions, including the U.S., the U.K. and the Caribbean region, community officers are assigned on at least a semi-permanent basis to a specific area, because this permanence enables a familiarity that engenders trust with community members. In the longer-term, this trust is strengthened and yields broad and deep relationships between police and the community that helps both solve crimes and prevent them.
The RCIPS has practiced neighborhood policing for several years, with the CPD launching several successful, community-based initiatives across the districts, and facilitating several neighbourhood watches. Since the priorities for CPD officers are guided by the concerns of the community, the daily activities of CPD officers can be quite diverse. On a given day, an officer could be working on anything from collaborating with the National Roads Authority to install speed bumps on a residential street, to meeting with the Department of Agriculture to address stray dogs in a neighbourhood, to engaging with a local council or school to establish an after-school program for children in a community who need one. Often, CPD officers are well-versed in a variety of issues and have deep knowledge about what is needed on a practical level to solve recurring community problems.
Despite this successful work, or perhaps because of it, residents of the Cayman Islands have clearly stated on several occasions during community meetings with police that the numbers of community police officers on island are insufficient, and that more community officers are wanted and needed. In 2018, thanks to increased funding from the Cayman Islands Government specifically earmarked for community policing, the CPD will be gaining officers and growing its ranks to include officers for all beats. This influx of new officers to the department enables greater permanence for officers on their assigned beats and a more stable problem-solving focus on the issues affecting communities.
An interactive map is available on this site on the Your Community page that can help residents determine their policing beat and learn about the neighbourhood officer(s) assigned to their area.
Community Police Officers work with a list of external partners listed below:
- Department of Environment - DOE
- Department of Environmental Health - DEH
- Youth Services Unit - YSU
- Department of Children and Family Services - DCFS
- National Roads Authority - NRA
- Public Works Department - PWD
- Government Information Services - GIS
- Department of Vehicle Drivers License - DVDL
- Department of Education Services - DES
Police Inspector Ian Yearwood is the Inspector in charge of Community Policing, Events Planning, and the Operation Support Unit
Today, Friday 14 April, the RCIPS released its 2022 Crime and Traffic Statistics Report, and members of the Senior Command Team held a press conference to discuss the main developments and trends described in the statistics with the media.
RCIPS encourages safety throughout the upcoming Easter Holiday.
The RCIPS, along with the North Side District Council, will be holding a District Community Meeting in North Side on Thursday evening, 26 July. The meeting will be held at 8:00PM at the North Side Civic Centre.
The Windsor Park Community is having their quarterly meeting on Saturday, 30 June at 6:00PM at the Windsor Park Community Park.
