Police after court no–shows

By Brent Fuller, brent@cfp.ky

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The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service said this week that it is getting control of a problem which was delaying court cases.

The failure to deliver witness summons had put at least two cases on hold in Acting Magistrate Valdis Foldats court earlier this month. At that time, police told the Caymanian Compass just under 1,000 still needed to be served.

As of Tuesday afternoon, that number had dropped to around 350.

It is the responsibility of police officers to personally deliver notice to court witnesses so those people know what day to appear.

“We’ve been working very hard to get the witness summons down,” said RCIPS spokesperson Deborah Denis. “It has been an effort, taking officers from various departments as and when they can, to serve these…as quickly as possible.”

Just in time for another problem to turn up.

Late Tuesday, police reported some 860 outstanding arrest warrants remained to be served. The warrants are generally for minor or non–violent offenses; anything from speeding tickets to burglary charges.

Warrants are generally issued in two cases; either the person has simply failed to show up for a court date, or the person failed to pay a fine after appearing in court. Warrants can also be issued for those who don’t perform community service, if that’s required as part of their sentence.

Ms Denis said the problem with warrants is separate from the issue of delivering court summons. Different police officers are assigned to serve each, and there have been discussions in the past about whether police should be used to serve witness summons at all.

There is no similar discussion with warrants, which RCIPS officers must serve for legal and safety reasons. The department also notes the problem of outstanding arrest warrants is common in many communities around the world.

“Eight hundred and sixty is a pretty high figure (for warrants), but in all honesty we’re never going to be able to get that down to zero,” Ms Denis said.

Four RCIPS officers have been assigned to whittle down the number of outstanding warrants in the coming weeks. Police Commissioner Stuart Kernohan said it’s a matter of respect for the court system.

“Some people may think that they need not worry about minor offences as no one will check on them,” the Commissioner said in a prepared statement. “But that is not the case.”