The Bermuda Police Service has for some years now moved away from being a force; unfortunately the managers of the service did not see fit to make the complete transformation form a force to a service in their policies.
Members of the Bermuda Police Service above the rank of sergeant should have strong human resources management skills. This is the necessary art of managing the complexity of characters and personalities that make up such institution. These members must be confident individuals who are not intimidated when they are asked to manage employees who may have a higher degree of competence, skills and training than they possess. Rather than becoming intimidated they must acknowledge the individual qualities and use the persons, skill sets, training and knowledge to benefit the organization.
Unless the Bermuda Police Service takes this path in ensuring that its senior and middle managers learn to manage personnel, it will be unable to retain trained, qualified and knowledge persons in the Police Service. As it stands, the middle and senior managers are intimidated by confident, knowledgeable and trained personnel whom the service employ. These people and their skill sets are not respected or properly utilized for the benefit of the Bermuda Police Service and the people of Bermuda. Instead, the middle and senior managers who are intimidated by such personnel tend to create a hostile environment for these officers, and make their time in the Bermuda Police Service uncomfortable one.
Senior managers are totally afraid of confidence. Any sign of confidence that is displayed by the BPS members, a quality which aids and contributes to professionalism, is scorned upon by the Service.
Recently the Members of the parliamentary opposition as well as the Bermuda Government were concerned about whether the Bermuda police service in its recruitment drive was recruiting officers with the necessary skills to effectively deal with the murders and other serious crimes that are occurring in Bermuda.
It is important that, when the Bermuda Police Service recruitment team goes to Europe or the Caribbean on their regular recruitment drive, their aim must be to employ officers with particular skills that would enhance the quality of the Bermuda Police Service which will be utilized for the benefit of the people of Bermuda. It will be futile to focus on recruiting such talent at this point and time, as the management of the Bermuda Police Service have not yet learn how to manage skill and competent personnel. There have to be changes in the attitude of senior management.
