The Bermuda Police Service is now on the video beat.

At a recent Press conference held at the service's training school, Police Commissioner Colin Coxall was presented with a freshly released copy of the video, "The Bermuda Police: Serving the Community''.

Written and directed by Chief Inspector Gertrude Barker, the 16-minute documentary traces the roots and role of the Island's constabulary.

Produced by Triton Production Ltd. the video was made possible through the support of the Bank of Bermuda and the Shell Oil Company of Bermuda.

Elizabeth Ward of the Bank of Bermuda and Wayne Soares of Shell Oil were on hand for the presentation.

The video is more than just a PR tool, Commissioner Coxall told The Royal Gazette .

"It's a part of our policy to open the lines of communication, to make the Police Service more accessible to the community as whole,'' he said.

Providing a window on the history and culture of the service is one way to help people understand the responsibilities of the Police, he said.

Twenty-four copies of the video will be used at the service's training school and will be made available to the community through the Schools Liaison Programme and the night school programme, said Chief Insp. Barker.

"We want to reach out to young people and the School Liaison programme in conjunction with the department of education is one way of doing that,'' she said.

Co-produced and narrated by Lt. Col. Brendan Hollis, the video covers the years 1878 to the present.

From archival footage and historical material unearthed by Andrew Bermingham, the video provides a chronology of not only the Police Service, but life on the Island as whole.

Fact is, so the story goes, this little piece of paradise has never been free of crime; survivors of the Sea Venture in 1609 committed the first recorded offences, and by 1620 records make mention of constables for each parish.

In 1838 a Bill was introduced in the Colonial Parliament "for the establishment of an efficient Police for Hamilton and St. George's'', but it was not until 1878 that the ten-man-strong Bermuda Police Force officially hit the beat, with an annual budget of 600.

The service appointed its first detective, a Bermudian named Charles Edward Simons, in 1919, and recruited its first female officers in 1962.