Inspector Gerald Joseph retires from the RCIPS

(CMR) The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) recently celebrated with former Inspector Gerald Joseph, who has retired after serving the Cayman Islands for more than 42 years.

Inspector Joseph enlisted in the service on 1st June 1981, completed the local recruitment training, and by January 1982, was assigned to work at the West Bay Police Station.

On Friday, 21 July, a group of officers and staff gathered at the Police HQ, to bid farewell to Inspector Gerald Joseph and to thank him for his service, dedication, expertise, and hard work. Leading in this effort was DCoP Anthony Ennis, who, having also joined the service in 1981, developed a friendship with Inspector Joseph that stood the test of time for the past 42 years.

From very early on, Inspector Joseph was identified as an officer with a high aptitude, not just for policing but for forensic examinations. By May 1982, less than five months into his active duty, he was assigned to the Scenes of Crime Unit within the service.

Less than two years into his service with the RCIPS, Joseph sat and passed the promotion exam, and by the year 1988, he was promoted to the rank of Police Sergeant. During this time, he remained in the Scenes of Crime Unit. The following year after his promotion, in 1989, he again sat and passed the inspector’s exam, showcasing his aptitude and intelligence for policing. He was promoted to the rank of inspector in the year 2001.

During his time with the Scenes of Crime Unit, Inspector Joseph gained a wealth of training, including Advanced Crime Scene Technology, Serious Crime Attachment, Blood Spatter Interpretation, Police Medicolegal Investigation of Death, and Digital Photography at the Miami Dade Police in Florida, USA.

He also attended an Identification Methods and Technique Course for nine weeks at the Canadian Police College, a Reconstruction of Shooting Incidents Course in Orlando, USA, and a Chemical and Fluorescence Trace Evidence Recovery Course at Carlton University in Ottawa. With this knowledge and experience that he gained from all the training courses he attended, Inspector Joseph was instrumental in the development of the Crime Scene Investigations Unit. The expertise that he gained through his educational pursuits and training specific to the organization have been instrumental to many major investigations over the years.

Throughout his career, and more specifically in the role as the head of the Scenes of Crime Unit, Inspector Joseph represented the RCIPS and the Cayman Islands as a member of various international law enforcement groups, namely the International Association of Identification (USA), the Identification Society (UK) and the Canadian Identification Society.

In April 2012, Inspector Joseph was transferred to the Firearm and Security Licensing Unit, where he assumed the responsibility of the review and licensing of security companies and individuals, as well as the application for permission to be a licensed firearm holder. He held this post for more than 10 years before assuming a new role at the Cayman Islands Detention Centre in August 2022.

The services that were provided by Inspector Gerald Joseph over the years will be felt throughout the service, especially in the groundbreaking progress that he made with the Scenes of Crime Unit, which paved the way for improvement and innovation for investigations being carried out by the RCIPS.