The Bermuda Police Service have defended their record on responding to the hundreds of public access to information requests received.

Darrin Simons, the Commissioner of Police, said that the BPS acknowledged the breaches identified by the Information Commissioner’s Office and took their obligations under Pati seriously.

While Mr Simons said that the BPS would continue to work with the ICO to strengthen their processes. He explained that the number of requests received presented a serious challenge.

He said that since Pati came into effect in April 2015, the BPS have processed 463 of the 1,416 requests submitted through all public authorities.

Mr Simons said: “That is 33 per cent of the entire government's Pati workload handled by one agency. Our 14 breach findings represent 14 per cent of all 103 failure-to-decide decisions issued by the ICO over that same period.

“We carry more than a third of the load while generating a proportionally smaller share of the failures.”

Mr Simons said that in all of the 2026 cases involving the BPS, decisions were issued once the ICO reviews got under way.

He added: “No binding orders were required against the BPS. That matters.

“The ICO itself recognises that these delays stem from ‘resource limitations or co-ordination gaps, rather than overt bad faith’. That is an accurate description of the BPS position.”

Mr Simons also noted that many requests touched on active investigations, sensitive police tactics or required consideration of the privacy rights of third parties.

He said: “A single request can require vetting hundreds of documents and obtaining legal advice on what can lawfully be released.

“This amounts to days of effort by the Pati officer as well as the specific record holder within the BPS. The annual cost of processing these requests exceeds $150,000.

“Despite these pressures, BPS information officers have earned the Information Commissioner's Vanguard Award in 2019, 2022 and most recently in 2025 when it was awarded to Constable Ronald Taylor.

“The award recognises the information officer who has had the greatest impact on public access to information.”

The comments came after the ICO told The Royal Gazette in a statement that there had been a “recent increase” in the number of legally binding orders it had to issue to compel heads of public authorities to release overdue decisions.

The Commissioner of Police was listed alongside top civil servants at the Cabinet Office, the ministries of finance, home affairs, education, youth and public works as those who had failed to give decisions to those requesting records.

The ICO said it had issued 103 failure-to-decide decisions since the Pati Act came into effect in 2015.

A lack of resources for handling Pati requests was highlighted in the report by former Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez, who urged the formation of a centralised unit within the Government to alleviate the “significant burdens on public authorities” in relation to processing Pati requests.

David Burt, the Premier, said in December 2024 that hiring extra staff to ease the burden on Pati officers was off the table.