Outcomes - Selected Case Summaries
Categories
Police contact at sea
Investigation | 22 June 2021
Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS)
The RCIPS informed us that during a police interdiction of a drug vessel a man jumped into the rough seas and could not be found after an extensive search and rescue operation. We decided to investigate this matter in the public interest.
We reviewed this event and found that the accounts of eyewitnesses and police officers were consistent that the man had jumped into the sea of his own volition, most likely to evade arrest. The Ombudsman found there were no suspicious circumstances to lead us to any other conclusion than that the police had acted lawfully trying to prevent the importation of drugs into the Cayman Islands at night during inclement weather conditions and rough seas.