Tue. Feb 11th, 2025

Darrin Simons, the Commissioner of a Police service ‘in crisis‘, recently speaking about Bermuda’s appalling crime statistics, is reported (by the Gazette) to have remarked:

As I have often said, the community is the police and the police is the community.*

Possibly the quote should have been attributed; a small gesture, but it shows integrity and respect for the original author while preventing others considering the utterance ethically questionable or intellectually dishonest.

Likely most who have served in a UK constabulary will be familiar with the many commonplace, wise, quotes about police service & sacrifice.  A well known one from about 200 years ago, attributed to Sir Robert Peel (1788 – 1850) is:

“The police are the public and the public are the police;
the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”

More quotes relating to the police can be found here. Possibly a more fitting quote for the BPS dates from 1829 and the first commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London, Sir Richard Mayne (to be learned word-perfect by every London officer in the 1970’s) is:

“The primary object of an efficient police is the prevention of crime:
the next that of detection and punishment of offenders if crime is committed.
To these ends all the efforts by police must be directed.
The protection of life and property, the preservation of public tranquillity, and the absence of crime will alone prove whether those efforts have been successful and whether the objects for which the police were appointed have been attained”.  

Given the lack of success (as above) to date, just where are the BPS efforts being directed?

Picture courtesy of Free Images


* Darrin, your sentence is clear and grammatically correct, but there appears to be a slight issue with subject-verb agreement in the second clause. The word “police” is a collective noun, and while it can take either a singular or plural verb depending on context, in most cases it is treated as plural when referring to a group of officers.

Here is what I believe to be the corrected version:

“As I have often said, the community is the police, and the police are the community.”

An accurate quote or down to Sékou Hendrickson of the Royal Gazette (RaG)?

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