by Heather Wood

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."

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