The following letter was sent to the Governor and copied to The Royal Gazette.

May 20, 2003

Your Excellency,

You probably don't spend the kind of time walking the streets of Hamilton or St. George's that the rest of us do, and you haven't been here for long, so we Bermudians can't expect you to know how much things have changed over the last few years. It's got pretty bad around here, I can tell you.

Once upon a time, when I was starting out, it was a nice place to be. It was quiet. You could park near wherever it was you had business to be. People were respectful to each other. They showed tourists how to get places. If you waited long enough, you'd see half the Government walking here and there, and some of them would have a cup of coffee with you if you asked.

There was a policeman on Heyl's Corner directing traffic, and you couldn't walk around for longer than a few minutes before you saw a pair of policemen on patrol. If you got out of line, especially at night, you'd get straightened out pretty quickly. You could park your bike and leave it unlocked and nobody would take it.

There was no such thing as a beggar. Sometimes people got drunk and carried on a bit, but the police got to them before any damage was caused, and they were taken back to the station in a Black Maria.

Progress killed some of that. Now, there are too many cars and too many people. Everybody's rushing around too much to do much more than nod to each other. Politicians are too busy in back rooms to be seen on the street and, anyway, they've got their GP cars to run around in. We still try and show the tourists around, but they've changed, too, and they don't seem to like to ask a lot of questions.

But it isn't progress to have beggars roughing tourists up, as we do now. It isn't progress to have cars driving down the street making more noise than a nightclub. It isn't progress when cars run red lights whenever they think they can get away with it.

It isn't progress when those oversized tractor trailer trucks break the speed limit trying to be first in line to get cargo off the docks and endanger the lives of everyone on the road with them. It isn't progress when trucks are routinely overloaded and seldom have their loads covered the way they should be.

It isn't progress to know if you leave your bike unlocked for 10 minutes it will be gone when you get back, or if you leave your car door unlocked, your CDs and anything else you left in it will be stolen right away by one of the many thieves who hang around looking for opportunity.

It isn't progress when tourists can't ride a bike without having to look over their shoulders, in case someone is about to snatch their purse.

It isn't progress when you're scared to be out of a car in Hamilton after dark. It isn't progress when children are fighting on the streets with bats and knives. It isn't progress when you can buy any drug you want, any time of the day or night, less than five minutes walk from the Police station.

No, sir. The reason for all that is simple. We don't see the police any more. I don't know what they do these days, but whatever it is, it isn't on the street.

You can't find a policeman any more unless he or she's in the Police station or in a car, passing through. We hear that sometimes on Saturday nights there aren't enough police on duty to do more than man the stations. There is no such thing as a police foot patrol any more.

Police have got too high class to use their feet any more. And every policeman except a cadet has his own car. When they say, “Constable Smith, go and patrol King Street”, Constable Smith gets in his car and drives up and down King Street once or twice, and is back talking to his mates in five minutes.

That's not a patrol. If I was a drug dealer, I'd love the police here, because they make my life easy. All I have to do is duck back in the alley when I see them coming, then get out and carry on my business when the car turns the corner and goes.

In New York, they once had a problem like Bermuda has now.

A Police Commissioner called Bratton straightened it right out, and now you're probably safer on the streets of New York than you are in Hamilton or St. George's.

This man Bratton came to Bermuda some years ago and talked about what he did. He put the police back on the streets, where they should have been all the time, and he told them ‘don't close your eyes to anything'. If somebody breaks a window or spray paints a wall, lock him up.

It worked. Crime took a nosedive. And as long as those police are out there with their feet on the ground and their eyes on the criminals, crime's not coming back.

Your Excellency, I've tried to talk to our Commissioner, Jonathan Smith, about this. He hasn't returned my calls. I have talked to Assistant Commissioner Carlton Adams about it, but nothing seems to have happened.

Your Excellency, the situation here has got to stop. People are afraid to go out on the streets after dark any more. You've got old people living in fear, because the criminals rule the streets.

The tourists aren't coming here like they used to, and I wouldn't be surprised if crime wasn't playing a big part in that.

You are the Commissioner's boss. You may have delegated some power to the Government, but you still remain in operational control of the Police. This is an operational problem.

We can't afford to have policemen who think they're too good to get their feet dirty. Being a policeman isn't a nine to five desk job with every weekend off.

They're supposed to stand between us and the criminals, but, as far as I can see, they don't stand a lot at all, just sit.

Please get them back to doing what they're supposed to do.

CHARLES SPANSWICK

City of Hamilton