Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
THE NUMBER of Jamaican policemen resigning to take up jobs in the neighbouring Cayman Islands continues to rise, local and Cayman sources are reporting.
Checks by The Sunday Gleaner revealed that 27 per cent of the 300 policemen and policewomen in the Cayman Police Force are Jamaicans.
"We have several Jamaicans, over 80 in fact, but we recruit from everywhere," said Kafara Augustine, press officer at the Cayman Police Force.
With a population of 67,500 and a police budget of $16 million, Cayman has been advertising on the Internet for police officers. One of the criteria for employment is that the applicant should currently be employed as a police officer with five years or more investigative experience.
A source at the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), said many Jamaican policemen were applying for jobs in the Royal Cayman Police Force where they are paid nearly five times the salaries they were getting in Jamaica.
David Whyte, president of the Jamaica Police Federation (JPF), said that an average of five to six police officers were leaving each week, "maybe for greener pastures or because of stress".
But with salary packages including free medical, free dental, life insurance for a constable, topped with a salary of CI$2,600 per month many have apparently gone there.
Currently, the exchange rate between the Jamaican and the Cayman Islands currencies is $73 to CI$1, thus a Jamaican constable working in the Cayman Islands would earn a gross salary of $190,000 a month compared to the $43,000 a policeman of similar rank earns working in Jamaica.
"A policeman with five years experience coming into our force would earn CI$2,600 a month," said an administrator at the Cayman Police Force headquarters.
DISMISSED
Meanwhile the JCF has been losing its members not only to resignations, but it was reported that over the last three years 118 officers were dismissed for misconduct and another 170 were awaiting rulings from the relevant disciplinary bodies of the JCF to determine their fate.
But the rapid rate at which the police officers are leaving does mean that there is a shortage in the 8,000-strong Jamaican force.
"Right now it is very stable. We had a graduation recently of 400 officers and another 430 will be graduating next week," Mr. Whyte explained. "It balances it out."
The Cayman Islands, a British dependency, has one prison with a capacity of 20 inmates.
