Bermuda Police Service
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| Bermuda Police Service | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1879 |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction |  Bermuda |
| Size | 53 square kilometres (20 sq mi) |
| Population | 66,000 |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Hamilton |
| Sworn members | 468 |
| Agency executive |
|
| Facilities | |
| Stations | 4 |
| Website | |
| www | |
The Bermuda Police Service is the law enforcement agency of the British Overseas Territory and former Imperial fortress of Bermuda.[1][2]
Overview
[edit]The BPS is responsible for policing the entire archipelago, including incorporated municipalities, and the surrounding waters. It is part of, and entirely funded by, the Government of Bermuda.
Like the Royal Bermuda Regiment, it is under the nominal control of the territory's Governor and Commander in Chief, although, for day-to-day purposes, control is delegated to a minister of the local government.
It was created in 1879, as Bermuda's first professional police service. In organisation, operation, and dress, it was created and has developed in line with the patterns established by British Isles police services, such as the City of Glasgow Police, and the Metropolitan Police Service.
History
[edit]
Bermuda's first police, from settlement until 1879, had been nine parish constables (one for each parish). As had been the case in England, these positions were filled by men appointed for twelve months, unpaid service, until pay was introduced in the 19th century. These appointments were compulsory, akin to jury service.
Dissatisfaction with the quality of this part-time constabulary led to the formation of the Bermuda Police Force under the Police Establishment Act, 1879. The new body consisted of ten full-time constables under Superintendent J. C. B. Clarke. Three of the constables were based in Hamilton, with Clarke, three in St. George's, with Chief Constable H. Dunkley, and two in Somerset, and there were still twenty-one part-time parish constables.
The size of the police force was trebled in 1901. The first detective was appointed in 1919, and the force was reorganised again in 1920, with eighteen constables recruited from the UK raising its strength to forty-six. The size of the force grew steadily over the following decades.
The Bermuda Reserve Constabulary was created in 1951. After the reduction of Bermuda's Royal Naval Dockyard (which had had its own police force) to a base in 1951, and the associated withdrawal of regular British Army units of the Bermuda Garrison in 1957 (leaving only part-time units), Police Headquarters and other elements relocated to Prospect Camp, the former military headquarters. A Women's Department was established in 1961 with the first five female police officers. A marine section was formed in 1962, with its first large boat, the Heron, being built by police officers in their spare time.
The difficulty recruiting constables locally had led to increased intake of constables from the British Isles, such as William Joseph Cormack (who came to the force from the Staffordshire County Police in 1955, and would go on to become Chief of the Metropolitan Toronto Police from 1989 to 1995),[3] which resulted in criticism of the racial make up of the force not reflecting that of the wider community. The reasons for failing to obtain the necessary local recruits, black or white, was attributed to a number of factors, including the small population, but primarily the reluctance among those islanders who were likely to meet the physical and educational requirements to choose a career in public service, especially the police. As recorded in the official "Bermuda Report for the year 1971":[4]
Bermuda is an affluent society in which persons who would otherwise qualify for service in the Police Force can obtain equally or more lucrative positions in the business world, without being subjected to the disciplined existence of a policeman, entailing as it does working shifts on Sundays and Public Holidays. Bermudians are recognised as being very much individualists who resent restrictions on their freedoms. Many local Bermudians are used to holding down two jobs in order to earn extra money, a practice not permitted in the Police Force. But above all, in a small community such as Bermuda, service in the Police force which means service amongst friends and relatives whom it may be necessary to report and arrest is not popular.
As the resultant heavy reliance on recruitment of trained constables from the British Isles resulted in friction between the police force and part of the community due to the racial imbalance, in 1966 the Bermuda Police Force began also recruiting constables from British West Indian police forces, starting with seven constables from Barbados.[5] Although the practice of recruiting from the British West Indies would continue, it was not deemed entirely successful. As the "Bermuda Report for the year 1971" continued:
More recently police have been recruited from the Caribbean with a view to correcting the racial imbalance in the force. This has not been particularly successful, Bermudians regarding West Indians as much, if not more, expatriate as recruits from the United Kingdom, which has been and remains the main source of recruitment.
The force consequently took a number of measures intended to encourage local recruitment, and the promotion of locally recruited officers. These steps included heavy police involvement in various youth programmes, with a member of the force seconded to the Government Youth Service, and the institution of a Police Cadet scheme in the colony's secondary schools from 1972, similarly to the military Bermuda Cadet Corps.
Internal security
[edit]In the 1960s the Bermuda Police performed a new role: internal security, dealing with riots resulting from the struggle for racial equality. This culminated in 1977 with riots following the hanging of two members of the Black Beret Cadre convicted of five murders, including those of Governor Richard Sharples, his aide-de-camp Captain Hugh Sayers, and the Commissioner of Police George Duckett. The death penalty had not been used in Bermuda for three decades. As the two men convicted were black, many blacks saw the death sentences as racially motivated.
