As Commissioner of Police it is my pleasure to welcome you to the new RCIPS website, which we have designed with the intention of strengthening our relationship with the communities of the Cayman Islands. As you will see as you browse through the site, there is a wealth of information here about your police service, but there are also several opportunities for you to communicate with us. Whether you have feedback on our service or have information that you think we should know, we want to hear from you, and one purpose of this site is to make this communication as easy as possible, as well as inform you about what we are doing.
Going forward, the RCIPS intends to use this site as the main platform for the timely communication of news about crime incidents, and public safety and crime prevention messages. All news releases previously distributed via email to the media and government only will now be published on this site in real time. This includes alerts about developing incidents or public safety concerns.
Our objective in this endeavor is to utilize the online environment to improve our public communications and distribute messages that residents need to know more efficiently, so that you are equipped with the information you need when you need it. This is most relevant in the area of traffic conditions following road collisions, but is also important in major crime incidents, search and rescue operations, or searches for missing persons. Given the mobility of modern communications and the immediacy of these messages, we will also be developing a mobile app following the launch of this website so that the public can have access to this information wherever they go.
These advances are a leap forward for the RCIPS in the realm of our communications with the public and are a response to longstanding requests from the community for a greater level of engagement and transparency. We as a police service are here to serve you, and to be more available and accessible. Our Community Police Officers are at the forefront of this engagement, but so are all of our media and online communications. We are going about strengthening this engagement on all fronts. On that note I would like to add that we are currently in the process of providing mobile phones for all of our community officers, so they have the an immediate means of communication with their communities when on patrol.
All of these efforts are grounded in a determination to strengthen our ties to those we serve, build public trust and confidence, and deliver a professional service, which is one of our organizational goals under our Annual Policing Plan. With the launching of this website, and later the mobile app, we are now leveraging the advances in communications technology for the benefit of the communities we serve and the quality of the service we provide. We are bringing a new level of engagement and transparency to what we do, and I look forward to the closer partnership with the public that these new tools will enable us to build as we work toward reducing crime and strengthening public safety.
Sincerely,
Derek Byrne
Commissioner of Police