Bermudians complain about the Police every day.

'Babylon', 'the Man' and 'po pos' are all terms that have been used to describe them.

But could you do their job? I doubt it.

Friday night, I hung out with the Roads Policing Unit to see what a typical night was for them. How many people would they arrest? Would I get to see drunks? Would there be a high-speed chase?

Well, there was a chase.

The Roads Policing Unit met at the Police Headquarters in Prospect just after 8 p.m. to be briefed by Inspector Phillip Lewis.

The plan for the night was simple — target happy hour drinkers.

Insp. Lewis said the unit would be split into three areas — Rural Hill just before Ice Queen, The Lane and Middle Road in Devonshire.

There were 14 Police bikes, a few cars, two paddy wagons and a truck. And Reserve Police joined the unit.

Insp. Lewis told the officers: "Zero tolerance. I don't mind giving cautions and breaks but we have to give a message.

"We're not tolerating tint. We are targeting safety offences. People are not wearing seat belts."

Last weekend, there were 41 people pulled over in an hour, for not wearing a seat belt.

"Any car that we see that's dark, that car's coming in. To me it's a safety issue. In this climate, tint is a safety issue," the inspector said.

Our first stop was Rural Hill to catch speeders and drunk-drivers. The inspector decided to conduct random checks on cars.

He explained that many people drive over the limit but don't seem drunk so the random checks help with that. He added roadside breathalysers would help even more.

Close to 20 cars were pulled over and sent on their way two Police cars, a Paddy wagon and two bikes conducted checks.

One man was pulled over for having too dark tint and was told to remove it or the car would be impounded. He chose to remove the tint.

Insp. Lewis said: "If we see that everybody's obeying the law, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.

"By now all of Bermuda knows 'the man' is out. The texts are going. But it's good."

Minutes later, heavy rain forced the unit to relocate. We stopped on South Shore in Devonshire but decided to move to Terceira's Gas Station on North Shore.

The cars and bikes parked but an officer sat at the entrance with a radar gun.

"As each vehicle drove by, the officers would predict the speed and then the gun would beep with the correct speed.

Moments later, a man on a black Honda Scoopy sped by on a bike. He was stopped and searched and let go a few minutes later.

One of the officers said if they sat out long enough, someone would come by doing 75 kph.

And sure enough, three V50s came flying by doing 75 kph.

"Let's go hon. Get in the car," Insp. Lewis yelled out to me.

Seconds later we were chasing the bikes down North Shore but they turned into side streets and got away.

Inps. Lewis said it wouldn't have happened if the Police bikes were with us but they were out chasing other offenders.

A few minutes later, one officer was giving a man on a bike a ticket when another rider came speeding towards him.

The officer motioned for him to stop but the rider revved the bike and continued, forcing the officer to jump out of the way and onto his own bike to chase him.

That man got away as well.

After the break, I decided I couldn't stay awake long enough to end the shift and drove myself home.

Shortly after I left, the unit arrested two men for gun possession. Insp. Lewis said he didn't finish until 6.30 that morning.