(CNS): With the help of technology and the support of the community, the RCIPS is delivering one of the world’s best detection rates when it comes to solving crimes, senior officers said at a press briefing on Wednesday. Although crime increased slightly in 2025, with 4,736 crimes reported, the police appear to be tracking down perpetrators.
At the briefing, where last year’s crime statistics were unveiled, senior officers said that, while the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was overloaded, the criminal courts were stretched to capacity, and the prison was bursting at the seams, the police had “locked up some serious bad guys”.
The RCIPS’s overall success in catching criminals is reflected in the detection rates published in the annual crime statistics report. At this point, the detection rate for overall crime committed in 2025 is about 32%, but more than 25% of recorded crime from 2025 is still under active investigation and police management expects that figure to increase over the coming months.
When the RCIPS revealed its crime figures for 2024 last April, the detection rate was around 43%, but it has since risen to more than 50%. Police Commissioner Kurt Walton remains confident that, once again, his officers will get close to solving half of last year’s crimes.
Over the last five weeks, in the wake of five armed robberies, the police have made arrests and charged suspects in all five cases, Pete Lansdown said during the briefing. He explained that CCTV had made a significant difference to crime detection.
And while technology, such as sophisticated cameras and forensic science, including DNA, is helping achieve high detection rates, recidivism is responsible for a considerable proportion of recorded offences. A growing population is also fuelling crime, with 2025 seeing a 13% increase, or an additional 558 offences.
The majority were public order or ICT crimes, though most categories of crime increased slightly last year. However, serious violence was down, as were firearms offences. Robberies increased significantly by 55%, while burglaries fell by 31%.
Walton said that while the police still face many challenges as their remit and expectations from the community grow, he continues to be supported when it comes to the budget. As a result, he is now focused on “future proofing” the service to manage emerging risks and threats as well as community expectations, which means increasing the headcount.
He confirmed that there are currently 405 officers employed by the RCIPS and 117 civilian support staff, but he said the target is 506 officers and 133 support staff. Recruitment is actively underway for 19 experienced and specialist officers, and a local open recruitment programme for new officers is scheduled for September.
The difficulties of recruiting and training remain, and the community policing and traffic units have been depleted over the past few years due to a shortage of officers. But with ongoing recruitment, Walton hopes to increase both as quickly as possible with a long-term vision of creating a tourism policing unit within community policing.
However, having enough traffic officers is only one part of the problem on local roads. There was a 5% increase in collisions in 2025, including six road deaths and 27 people seriously injured, and Walton said that enforcement alone won’t solve this issue. He explained that collaboration with many other departments is required to address Cayman’s terrible road safety record.
See the statistical report in the CNS Library.
