Dear Sir,

As much as I respect the police and the hard jobs they perform, there is room for considerable improvement.

In an article published in The Royal Gazette on July 5, Darrin Simons, Commissioner of Police stated:

“Anyone who has been here for a while will say that, in the last ten years, the standard of driving behaviour and the carelessness on the roads, the lack of courtesy on the roads, has crept in.”

He then goes on to promote speed cameras and their deterrence value. Yet, studies in Britain and elsewhere show speed cameras do not reduce accident rates. They only increase government revenue.

If “in the last ten years, the standard of driving behaviour and the carelessness on the roads” has increased, it is because no one is stopping them. That is the job of the Bermuda Police Service.

If driving has deteriorated over the past ten years, and we must suffer the deaths of a dozen people a year, then the responsibility for that lands directly on the desk of the Commissioner of Police and his boss, the Governor of Bermuda. The Minister of National Security is also in the spotlight for this issue, given the Progressive Labour Party has been in power for most of the past ten years and has done little to improve things.

Below is a video I recorded a few days ago. I would like to ask the commissioner, Michael Weeks and the Governor how speed cameras will help to stop the behaviours in this video.

SIMON PARKINSON

Smith’s