Morale within the Bermuda Police Service has been “seriously affected” by confidential data detailing the performance of contracted officers being circulated within the organisation.

The five pages of documents provide extensive information about policemen and policewomen’s performance on the job and rated them from “very high value” through to “not high value”.

Commissioner Michael DeSilva told The Royal Gazette he had met with the Bermuda Police Association to apologise for any offence that may have been inadvertently caused to staff.

He added: “It is regrettable that this incident added unnecessary strain to a challenging set of circumstances.

“But I have reminded the BPA that more contracts will likely be allowed to expire in order to reach the budget reduction targets that are continuing into the next financial year. The BPA seems to have accepted this fact and I have had the document amended with more suitable language so that it can assist me with the difficult decisions that lie ahead.”

The information, that was leaked to The Royal Gazette, also outlines how many uncertified and certified sick days each officer has taken, what disciplinary action has been taken against the officer and when their contract expires.

This newspaper has chosen not to name officers who were given a particularly low rating, however, one who was deemed as “not high value” had taken more than 90 days certified sick leave between 2013 and 2015.

A senior police source told The Royal Gazette: “It’s pretty disgusting. It’s discriminating against officers based on national origin and it’s seriously affected morale. Many of the officers on the list are from the Caribbean.

“It’s very subjective and not in line with individual officers’ appraisals.”

The source added that because officers in sensitive positions were identified, the document should have been highly classified, adding: “The document has been circulating around officers — it should have been a controlled document with the kind of information that’s in it.”

The data sets out in spreadsheet form the “value of contribution” each officer provides the service.

While most officers are described as productive and reliable and many achieve the status of “extremely high performer”, others attract less complimentary comments such as “low workload and does not add significant contribution”, and “has been subject to discipline investigations (ongoing). Not high value”.

Other officers are described as “not a standout” and “presents some supervisory challenges — lost motivation and drive”.

Mr DeSilva said the document had been prepared leading up to the “very difficult decision to allow ten police officers’ contracts to expire” in July, adding: “In preparing for that decision, a document was created that summarised the general performance of every police officer that is currently on an employment contract.

“The document provided each officer’s posting, specialised skills, sick record, discipline record and other performance data.

“The terms ‘high value’ and ‘low value’ appear in the document with reference to some of the officers. This was meant to convey the degree of impact the officer’s abstraction would have on the operations of the BPS if they were released.

“Firearms officers, level three investigators, family liaison officers and traffic collision experts are a few examples of specialised posts that receive significant training investments and they would be difficult to replace all at once.

“The reference to ‘value’ was never intended to reflect the worth of officers as individual people, or to diminish the important work they all do.

“In hindsight, I recognise that the language caused offence to some officers and it should not have been used.

“The document was the subject of a Pati request and it has been released.”