Commissioner of Police Michael DeSilva - In January I published the annual policing plan for 2010 and made a commitment to Making Bermuda Safer through tackling crime and enhancing public confidence. As the Minister has mentioned, almost all of our efforts lately have been aimed at improving these two areas. We are progressing in the areas where we are short on experience, and we are building more capacity where we are short on staffing. So it is left to me to report on the results of our enquiries for overseas assistance that have met support from Government and endorsement from Government House:

Temporary Staff:

14 members of staff have been hired on a temporary basis ranging from 3 to 6 months each to support our investigations in the Serious Crime Unit. We currently have 14 murders under active investigation, half of which occurred in the last 12 months. Additionally, we have 21 attempted murder/shooting investigations that are being handled by the Serious Crime Unit. The Unit was not designed to handle that kind of workload. Some temporary staff arrived in late January, others arrived more recently: the idea being to provide protracted investigative support, rather than having everyone here at the same time. None of the staff are front-line police officers, instead they are tasked with: Case reviews (reviewing older cases for new lines of enquiry); Investigators; Intelligence analysts.

Firearms Officers:

A number of trained police officers have been selected from the UK for hire, and they will arrive in Bermuda next month. These officers are already trained and authorised as firearms officers in the UK. They will join a number of local officers who received their firearms training earlier this year for some joint training, before both groups then join the main firearms team on operational duties.

Assistant Commissioner of Police:

With the promotion of Deputy Commissioner Jackman and I in December, a vacancy was created in the second Assistant Commissioner’s post. Following advertisements posted overseas, 3 candidates have been invited to Bermuda this week to interview for the position. The ideal candidate will have a proven and recent track record of developing strategies and operational tactics that reduce crime and antisocial behaviour, particularly in relation to gang violence and the use of firearms. Rather than race our Superintendents to the next rank – all of whom are new in the post – I have decided to enhance their training by providing operational postings in the UK to give wider exposure to operational policing. In the meantime, the new Assistant Commissioner will provide coaching and mentoring to our staff in areas of policing that are quite new to the Bermuda Police Service. A contract not longer than 3 years duration will be offered at which time one of the local Superintendents will have been identified for the position.

FBI Support & Training:

Following on from the training provided by the FBI in Bermuda in January, a second course is being planned to incorporate some of our partner agencies including: the DPPs Office, Customs, Immigration, Corrections and Probation Services. The FBI has tremendous experience in this task-force approach to tackling gangs and there are many learning opportunities for Bermuda in this regard.

The Bermuda Police Service has been invited by the FBI to join their information sharing network. This will give local police access to US national databases on guns, ammunition, gangs, graffiti, tattoos and internet sites – all designed to help us understand the local gang problem better and more quickly. More importantly, access to this network puts US law enforcement agencies on alert for persons that Bermuda has interests in. So, if the police are monitoring an individual in Bermuda – the US authorities will also look out for them when they are in the States.

We have also been invited to take part in operational attachments with the FBI and its partners to get a first hand look at intelligence systems and street level tactics. I expect to be able to send some of our staff across in two’s and three’s starting very soon. This is a tremendous training opportunity for our local police officers who will benefit from the tried and tested methods of our US counterparts. I am extremely grateful to the FBI for these generous offers.

New York Police Department:

Following some earlier telephone calls this year, we met last week with senior officers from the Gang Division of NYPD. They were very welcoming – as we find with most of our sister police forces – and we looked at their intelligence systems, operational teams and community outreach initiatives. It was reassuring that we are, in fact, already doing many of the same things they are. There may be opportunities for our staff to visit NYPD – and indeed other agencies as we are open to following best practice wherever we find it. However, no details have been worked out just at the moment and quite clearly we have our hands full with the other projects we are working on.