A public stand against corruption within the police ranks, with a dedicated unit in place since last year, can be expected to yield more cases of officers being investigated as the service polices itself.

Darrin Simons, the Commissioner of Police, told The Royal Gazette: “I think the public will see more of this, and it's because we are actively looking.”

He added: “The reality is, we’re all human, so there's going to be some people that make bad choices in our ranks.

“We're doing everything we can to identify those people, exit the people that truly don't belong in this organisation and help those that are maybe just making some poor choices that could be, if you like, rehabilitated.”

To address the spate of officer investigations, Mr Simons was joined by Deputy Commissioner Na’imah Astwood to outline a cultural shift within the organisation, that he traced back to disciplinary changes under 2016 legislation and the creation of a police professional standards department.

The Commissioner cautioned that more investigations did not equate to a worsening of discipline.

Likening it to an increased reporting of domestic abuse as awareness rises, Mr Simons said that “in focusing our energy and attention on that subject, we get more reporting as people develop trust and confidence”.

Speaking to the Gazette last week, Ms Astwood noted: “I just want to also highlight that we have matters ongoing, and the public can expect to see more cases that come before the public. And what that means is that we are doing our job.”

She said that anti-corruption measures stood to boost community confidence through the demonstration of transparency.

Mr Simons explained: “Corruption, ultimately, is any abuse of power for the gain of self or another — any time you abuse your powers or misuse the powers that you have, the opportunities that you have for your gain or for another.

“It can be really low-level stuff and it could be high-level types of criminality.

“Letting your friend off when you should have given them a ticket; that is corruption. Stealing from somebody where you’ve used your powers; that is corruption.”

Other examples could be “significant criminality, such as the importation of drugs — we're fortunate in Bermuda that that’s a rarity”.

Ms Astwood described other egregious examples, such as “using our police systems to get information and pass it on to someone within a community, so they can do corrupt practices themselves or illegal practices”.

She added: “People have trust that we are going to keep their business and information confidential. Then if we’re using it for a personal gain, that just decreases the trust that the public have in us.”

Mr Simons added: “We're very alive to the fact that these represent significant breaches of trust, and the trust of the community is absolutely paramount to what we do.

“So everything that we can do to protect that trust and also demonstrate that we are being proactive and taking the appropriate steps when we find out [wrongs have] occurred, we're prepared to do.”

He acknowledged the tactic could be “a double-edged sword, where you’re airing your dirty laundry, which creates a bit of question and concern, no doubt, within the community”.

Mr Simons added: “But at the same time, part of that message is, hey, we’ve identified something. We’re telling you what happened.”

The two differentiated the anti-corruption unit from the professional standards department, which handles public complaints such as excessive force or disrespectful conduct.

An independent police complaints authority also reviews findings.

Ms Astwood described reforms launched under the Police Amendment Act 2016 as the “catalyst” for developing the anti-corruption unit.

“Previous to that, we did have a complaints and discipline unit, but it didn't have as much of the structure and framework that sits within the legislation.”

She said the aim is to “build a culture where people now within the organisation report breaches on other persons”.

Mr Simons added: “One of the things that you'll find is that when there are these breaches of integrity, breaches of public confidence, there's probably no people that are more upset about that than the police themselves.

“For the overwhelming, vast majority of police officers, they have dedicated themselves to life, to public service — and to have somebody work at cross purposes to that is very frustrating.”

He said the “model of having police investigate police is pretty standard the world over”.

The Commissioner added that “whenever you have people that have power that can influence process, you have a risk of corruption”, and that incurring complaints could be viewed as inevitable in police work.

“There’s an adage in policing: if you’ve never got a complaint, then you’re not properly policing, right?” he said.

Mr Simons described the anti-corruption unit as looking at the areas of highest risk, including “covert investigations around officers from time to time” and occasional “high-level investigations”.

Both emphasised that an investigation did not automatically spell wrongdoing, and that officers could be exonerated, which was why the names of suspended officers were not released by the BPS to the public.

Ms Astwood added that suspension with pay during an investigation was a legislated requirement for the same reasons.

Asked if publicity around investigations of suspected malfeasance hurt morale within the service, the Deputy Commissioner maintained the opposite was the case.

She said: “Actually, I think it improves your mood because, like any organisation, like any family, when one of your own is actually betraying the trust that we have, we’re actually happy that the person is being dealt with, and people know that there is a standard.”