False information that has been circulated about either police operations or criminal investigations in the past few weeks has forced the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service to publicly refute those reports.

Police said late last week that these incidents are wasting officers’ and other RCIPS staff time since the service has to look into some of the claims.

The most recent example happened Friday afternoon when a series of text messages went around the Islands warning people about the locations of Friday night roadblocks planned by the RCIPS.

According to a police spokesperson, some of the information contained in the texts was incorrect.

“It is absolutely beyond belief that the person responsible would attempt to use erroneous information to suggest that he, or she, has inside knowledge of police operations; operations which have been set up following the brutal murder of a four-year-old,” a police department statement issued late Friday read.

RCIPS officers have increased the number of traffic stops around Grand Cayman since last Monday’s tragic shooting of Jeremiah Barnes at a West Bay gas station. The boy was killed when gunmen fired into his father’s vehicle, which was stopped at the Hell Esso station.

“At a time when our resources are required elsewhere, this behaviour and blatant attempt to hinder our operations is extremely unhelpful,” the RCIPS statement said, referencing the roadblock texts.

Earlier in the week, another apparently false report was made that one of the five boaters who went missing in rough seas during a January trip around Grand Cayman had been found alive in Cuba.

A police spokesperson said the service was unable to determine that any contact with the family of missing boater had taken place.

The RCIPS is also trying to run down the source of a comment on the Facebook social networking Internet site, which apparently identified two men as the suspects who were arrested in the 4 February bank robbery at Cayman National Bank in Countryside Shopping Centre.

Those two men named on the Facebook page actually had nothing to do with the bank robbery, according to police.

“The unsubstantiated information, which has allegedly been circulating on a certain social networking site, is extremely unhelpful and could be perceived by the courts as being detrimental to the on-going enquiry,” a separate police department statement read.

One of the men named on the web page as a bank robbery suspect filed a complaint with RCIPS.

“Anyone who posts information on these sites should be aware that defamation is a criminal offence in the Cayman Islands,” the RCIPS statement read.

There were two different men arrested in connection with the bank heist who have since been released on police bail pending further investigations. No charges had been filed at press time against either of those men, so their names have not been released.