Open Another Packets of Police … or else!
Darrin Simons, the chief of police, has apparently said ‘Officer numbers need to rise in order for the BPS to effectively respond to violent firearm crime’.
It therefore appears, if Bermuda police numbers remain as are, the constabulary will be unable to effectively respond to ‘violent firearm crime’ – is unable to respond effectively to the current firearm crime?
The ‘service’ currently has 360 officers of which 346 are not students undergoing training.
Michael Weeks (Minister of National Security) ‘hopes’ more than 100 officers would be recruited this year. There appears to be a difference between ‘recruited’ i.e. advised they could join a training programme, and ‘trained’ – Mr Simmons ‘hoped’ 25 new officers will begin training in November 2024.
The difference between Mr Simmons 25 officers and Mr Weeks 100 officers is not explained.
In 2023, the BPS is said to have received 100 applications – only 9 (!) were accepted for training. As for the others, the majority failed tests:
- health & fitness
- psychological
91% of Bermudians who applied were unacceptable due to their condition … it is not suggested that this percentage can be extrapolated and applied to Bermudians generally.
How many failed drug tests was not specifically reported.
Police were given the go-ahead to recruitment non-Bermudians on the island, but this differs to those ‘overseas’. It was also only expected to result in 15 new recruits.
Overseas Recruitment
Overseas recruitment is apparently progressing, according to Mr Simons. Yet Mr Weeks is reported to have said ‘we may have to go overseas’.
Remarks
Good luck making sense of the recruitment plans and numbers. Now is the time for clear, unequivocal statements, not sabre-rattling or hackneyed platitude
History
2007 – Staff are demoralised by Police changes say insiders:
Drastic changes within the Bermuda Police Service (BPS) have reduced the narcotics and criminal investigations departments to half their size and removed community officers from its roster completely, the Mid-Ocean News has learned.
The move is said to have had a demoralising effect on staff, with claims that the decision was made in the absence of an overall strategy for policing the island and in direct response to recruiting problems encountered as the BPS attempted to establish its new Community Action Team (CAT).
High on the list of criticisms was the recent realignment within the BPS. “The realignment has transformed the Service back to where it was when (former Police Commissioner from Britain, Colin) Coxall left,” said one. “(The current Commissioner George Jackson has) stripped (the) Narcotics (Department) of half its officers and he stripped half the people in CID because he’s having problems recruiting in the UK. (British officers) go back and word gets around about what it’s like to work here and so now he has to go to the (Caribbean) islands to recruit.”
