fabledbananna

That sounds fantastic! 56 grand!

I may go for that too, weigh them both up and decide in September. I used to work with someone who was there about 10 years ago. He loved it.

He said if he had the choice he'd do Bermuda, as there's less chance of losing everything in a hurricane. Apparently Cayman has also suffered an earthquake back in 2004 too :scared:

Oh decisions....... decisions......!

i am the LAW

There's a guy here, now working on community, that I worked with for a while on the watch who had worked for the Bermuda Police for a couple of years, before coming here. He said that he absolutely loved it and that it was 10 times better than the RCIP.

He only left because his wife ( bread winner ) got a job here. He really regrets leaving Bermuda, stating that the job there was very professional, with good kit and cars, a proper command structure with bosses who make decent decisions and good opportunities, as an expat, to move departments.

He said that Bermuda is a very pretty island and that he was saving over $3500 a month whilst living in Police accommodation and still living like a lord. The accommodation he stayed in was near the capital apparently and had its own bar, tennis and squash courts, gym and I'm pretty sure he said it had a rugby and football field too.

He said the crime and call rate there was about a tenth of what it is here and that Expats were really well respected and welcomed by the Bermuda cops.

Apparently all the Expats ( police and non police ) stick together and have a really good time.

The only downside, he said, was that as a diver the water temperature was a little cooler than here and that you were expected to wear long trousers / jeans to go into a pub r restaurant.

Food for thought for any potential RCIP applicants.

i am the LAW

Oh, and by the way, we had another earthquake here last week.

4.5 on the Rhicter scale :scared:

Funny how it didn't make all the press. Kind of puts tourists off, i guess

fabledbananna

Interesting insight IATL.
Can you check with your pal whether or not they allowed his wife to stay in the police accomodation.
I think that it's only for single officers.......

The other good thing with Bermuda is, they have PACE so I'll slot in well, as opposed to the 'anyhting goes' mentality of RCIP.

Skids

Hey all,
I'm a UK cop currently serving in Bermuda and happy to answer any questions.
I'm on [email protected]

Chastity

Sooooooo how many have accepted the Cayman position? I didn't.

I applied to Bermuda and I think my application will be accepted as they want experienced investigators. Anyone else had feedback from Bermuda?. I should or someone else should, start a new Bermuda thread.

Respeck

Congratulations 'to we all know who' Mother and bouncing baby boy doing well, 6lbs 2oz, a few weeks early.

Really looking forward to the new recruits arriving to take some of this work off of me. Hurry up and get here.

fabledbananna

Bermuda it was! And how G8 is it?

inert-object

Hmmmmmmm, interesting.

inert-object

Actually, I have more to say than that, but I had told myself I wasn't going to get involved with this debate, but I'm drawn like a drunk to a doner kebab. I'm serving RCIP, a few years ago I was sitting in the UK reading an almost identical thread to this one set up for officers on my UK intake, that had it's fair share of detractors, who told me many horror stories about indifference or hatred by locally grown colleagues and the Caymanian Public, horrific kit shortages, ancient vehicles, hurricanes, corruption etc, and I very nearly let them talk me out of it. Well, now I'm here and I'm glad I made the leap. As far as the job is concerned none of the above have yet come to light, at work I drive a four month old Chevy Impala Cruiser 4.0 litre crazy engined thing-one twenty minute check drive and you can take it away- loads more fun than a 1.6 focus dressed up as a panda. I have a reliable digital encrypted radio which which hasn't shown itself to have any coverage dead spots yet. I work with a wide variety of people from all over the the Caribbean, the UK, Canada and South Africa as well as native Caymanians and have found them all to be welcoming and have had many good (by good I mean drunken) nights out with them and have become firm friends with a lot of people. Unless you're transferring in from the extreme north of scotland you won't find it busy here. Crime is low, locals may tell you different, a couple of burglaries in a week here constitutes a complete breakdown of law and order in their eyes, think Craggy Island. As far as the public are concerned they're not too bad either, if you're tired of standing outside UK night clubs or traipsing round some urine drenched council tower block taking crap off hoody wearing rat boys and refereeing drunken chav v chavette domestics then you'll find the Cayman Islands a pleasant surprise, talk to people right here and you'll rarely if ever find yourself rolling around in the dirt with them. Oddly enough if you do get a load of drunken abuse of the type you're accustomed to in the UK, it will probably be from a Brit or an American. Just like everywhere else people are glad to get a police officer when they need us, and as long as you're professional the issue of what colour you are or where you come from has yet to arise in my personal experience. I also had all the worries about career breaks pensions and so on, but in the end I just said 'sod it' and took the job, again in my experience once you get here these worries quickly recede into the background. The trick is to get your head around the fact that it's going to be really different,(think 'Life on Mars'- we get that on BBC America-top series) accept those differences and get on with it! And let's face it, you're not moving 5000 miles to experience more of the same, that would just be silly. I'm not saying it's perfect here, but you will soon find that the shortcomings are insignificant next to the upsides- no totally unnecessary paperwork in triplicate (Drink drive file: 1 hour start to finish, even with blood procedure), no human rights act or PACE to hinder and rush you in your work, and even if you can't get on with the work, you're living in the Caribbean! If I had to sum it up, I would say moving here has been a very good move for me and my out of work quality of life is up 100% (aside from a few domestic issues of my own making). Oh one more thing, hurricanes, let's keep it in perspective, a serious one in 1933, then another in 2004, every Hurricane since I've been here has caused a few days mild concern before handbrake turning off up to Florida and missing us by miles, an event which is usually followed by lot's of impromptu drinking (usually on my own). Any way I've rattled on enough, I know the more negative bloggers here will doubtless try and shout me down and contradict everything I say, but these have just been my experiences, I can't speak for anybody else, and I don't plan on getting into a war of the words with anybody. Play nice. If you're coming out soon and you want to e-mail me from the little icon thing then please feel free. If not, I'll hopefully see you in a beach bar soon (it has to be Calico Jack's-you'll see!).

Pat Butcher

Apparently the latest recruitment drive was so successful that only 8 out of the 16 who were offered the job have taken it. What does that tell you?

inert-object

I don't know, I'm too busy enjoying my life to worry about it to care. Once the new guys are kicking back in a bar with a few drinks I doubt if they'll care either!

Pat Butcher

Ah yes, kicking back at Calico Jacks and a bottle of beer is how much? $5?

inert-object

$4, same as the UK. No complaints.

Pat Butcher

UK is less than that for a pint!!! and the $4 is very very cheap

That must be happy hour !