By Shurna Robbins
GEORGE TOWN (Reuters) - The Cayman Islands has brought in British police to tackle a rise in gang-related crime that business leaders fear could hurt the territory's image as a safe finance and tourism destination.
Fourteen British officers arrived in the Caribbean hedge fund hub late on Wednesday after they were requested by Cayman Police Commissioner David Baines.
The murder rate in the small British territory, with a population of 55,000, remains low compared with Caribbean states like Jamaica. But the 390-strong local police force has been stretched since the start of the year by five murders, a kidnapping, armed robberies and shootings.
Victims included a 4-year-old boy killed in crossfire.
Cayman authorities and local leaders in tourism, financial services and real estate are worried the spike in crime could damage the islands' reputation for safety and security, which has underpinned its emergence as a legal domain for many of the world's hedge funds.
"If we can't crack the problem and bring down the murder rate and restore a much better level of law and order, in the long term, it is going to damage the Cayman Islands," the British-appointed governor, Duncan Taylor, said this month.
Cayman authorities are already concerned about preventing the exit of foreign firms after the global economic downturn and an international crackdown on tax havens threatened to diminish the attraction of offshore finance jurisdictions.
"Cayman has for years been compared to how safe and secure it is compared to its Caribbean neighbors ... People have invested here based on this," said forensic accounting expert Ken Krys. He said security questions were coming up more frequently in recruiting staff to fill Cayman financial jobs.
Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman Resort developer Michael Ryan said he believed the crime increase could be checked. "But we have to deal with it now and we have to deal with it very aggressively," he said.
LINKS TO DRUG TRADE
To counter the crime rise, the police commissioner cancelled all rest days and vacation for police officers and put them on 12-hour shifts. Nonessential services were suspended to boost police visibility on the streets.
Drawn from a number of Britain's police forces, the reinforcing officers, who will be on four- to six-week assignments, were investigators and detectives with expertise in running murder inquiries and tackling gang-related crime.
"It is not about bringing in a SWAT team," said Baines. "It's about filling in the skill shortfall we have because our existing detectives are stretched."
Like most of the local police force, the reinforcements will not carry firearms, but will be backed up by armed officers if the need arises, a police spokesperson said.
Varying factors like the release of violent gang members from prison, a greater prevalence of firearms and leadership battles appeared to be contributing to the violence.
Gangs, which gained a foothold in the Caymans in 1996, have been involved in transhipment of drugs to the United States, as well as in the local drug trade, said Detective Chief Inspector Patrick Beersingh of the Joint Intelligence Unit.
Shipments of marijuana and cocaine from South and Central America are brought into the Cayman Islands via Jamaica, Honduras and Panama and then moved on to the United States. So-called Jamaican canoes also frequently smuggle in guns.
Police say there are some 30 criminal gangs in the Caymans with names like Jamaican Posse, Central Crew, West Bay Mobsters, East End Crew, Fern Circle and Wild Dogz. They each have special hand signs, colours and tattoos.
(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Chris Wilson)
