Outcomes - Selected Case Summaries
Categories
Lack of information concerning criminal complaint
Early Resolution | 19 July 2022
Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS)
The complainant stated his belief that the RCIPS had not investigated a criminal blackmail complaint he made about one year from the date of his contact with the Ombudsman’s office. He stated he attempted to address the matter internally with the RCIPS and stated he has received no response. He asked the Ombudsman to investigate the cause of the delay/non- response with the police service.
The matter presented some difficulty for the Ombudsman, in that the complainant was seeking our office to investigate a complaint regarding the investigation and detection of crime. We discussed the matter further with the complainant and determined that most of his complaint issues were not jurisdictional to our office. However, the issue of non-response by the RCIPS to a person making an allegation of crime is one that we believed could be addressed by our office.
We sought to informally resolve the issue with the RCIPS and senior officers responded quickly noting that the matter had indeed been investigated and was presented to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for a ruling. When the RCIPS provided this information to the complainant, we considered the matter to be closed, although we advised the complainant to contact the Ombudsman again if he did not receive further updates regarding his criminal complaint.
As this matter was resolved without the need for a formal investigation, the Ombudsman made no recommendations to the RCIPS.