New Police Chief bringing Deputies

Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, Derek Haines	New Commissioner of Police Stuart Kernohan.

Friday,  October 7, 2005

Police officers highly experienced in Intelligence Policing and, accustomed to working in a high-crime jurisdiction, are expected to arrive in the Cayman Islands within the next couple of weeks.

The officers – a group of approximately ten from the Merseyside area of the UK will be accompanying the newly appointed Commissioner of Police for Cayman, Stuart Kernohan.

Mr Kernohan is expected to arrive in the Cayman Islands on 15 October to take up his post as Commissioner of Police.

The additional ten officers are policemen with whom Mr Kernohan has worked with over the years on the police force in the criminally challenging area of Merseyside in Liverpool, England.

Speaking about Mr Kernohan’s team-of-ten, Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, Derek Haines said:

 “The arrival of these officers is yet to be officially confirmed. However, if plans for them go ahead, the officers will arrive with the new Commissioner or probably a short while after he arrives on 15 October.”

Speaking about the length of their stay, Mr Haines said the officers would probably be here up to about December this year.

“Their presence with us should prove to be a great boon to us, especially against the background that we have just set up our Serious Crimes Task Force,” said Mr Haines.

“These officers all have a lot of experience in in-depth investigation and Intelligence Policing. They will be working alongside our officers here, so this will be a training opportunity of sorts for our officers,” he added.

The incoming Commissioner’s top-level experience in Merseyside and, as well, that of the officers who have also worked in that area, provides solid credentials for their mission to the Cayman Islands at a time when results in bringing criminals to justice and managing out-of-control crime, are greatly needed.

Merseyside is described as, comparatively, an area that has crime levels that are amongst the highest in the United Kngdom, in particular in areas in Liverpool.

The Force there is known of the implementation of novel methods of crime control that have netted good results. Only recently the Chief Constable there announced his intention to arm all Merseyside Police with Taser stun guns.

Until now, the use of Tasers has been restricted to specially trained armed response units. The fact is however, with a population of over 1.3 million, Merseyside has managed crime without arming its force with lethal weapons.

Mr Kernohan himself heads the incoming team of crime fighters, having been Head of Intelligence and Investigation operations at Merseyside since 1998. He had responsibility for all major investigations, including murder, organised crime, commercial crime and other specialist crime operations.

In 1999, promoted to Chief Superintendent, he headed up major force-wide projects, including Gun-Crime.

In 2004 Mr Kernohan took over as Chief Superintendent Operational Support Unit, commanding over 500 specialist staff, including tactical firearms units and establishing Matrix Team, responsible for combating gang related crimes.  He was recently promoted to (Acting) Assistant Chief Constable responsible for Crime, Intelligence and Operational Support.

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