THE next two weeks will see some major reorganisation within the Bermuda Police Service with a re-emphasis on uniformed officers.<\p>Police Commissioner George Jackson (pictured below) and his top brass said to be doing their level best to reorganise the way police think and react to crime in Bermuda.One man who believes the public will see major changes in the weeks to come is Inspector Terence Maxwell, who was one of the original officers with the Major Incident Room — now referred to as the Serious Crime Unit — when it was established in 1988.

CURRENTLY assigned to the Criminal Investigation Unit, Inspector Maxwell sat down with the Mid-Ocean News>to talk about his 27 years with the Bermuda Police Service and the “fine line” officers tread every day.“A lot of people don’t realise just how many bad people there are in the world!” Inspector Maxwell says, sitting in the top floor office he shares with his colleague, Raphael Simons at the Hamilton Police Station.

Before getting serious, he jokes about the police station. Condemned in the 1950s, it was supposed to temporarily house the police until a purpose-built station was constructed.

That was 50 years ago.

“And it hasn’t changed much over the years,” he adds with a chuckle.

Back to business and Inspector Maxwell explains that he often jokes with colleagues and his wife Gloria about the fact there are things he knows and wishes he didn’t.

These include the best ways to kill people, ways to be killed, or which wounds you can survive and which you can’t.

“Some of the crime I’ve witnessed and the things I’ve seen done to humanity is disgraceful,” he says shaking his head.

“And I think sometimes the public loses sight of the fact that we are genuinely there to try and help.”

Asked how he deals with criticism of police tactics and occasional accusations of heavy-handedness, he admits that there will always be members of the community who don’t like the police.

“You will always find people who will criticise, likewise, you will find people who absolutely love the police. I’ve been a policeman for so long now I take the good with the bad.”

He is quick to add that the public have the mistaken impression that the police are strictly there as law enforcement, while they are also in fact professional witnesses to crime.

“That’s what we do... we give professional testimony in court. At the end of the day we’re here to stop the darkness from creeping in,” he says.

“I appreciate that there are a lot of minor annoyances and that speeding tickets can irk the public, but it’s done for a reason. We’re not money-makers for the Government, we are simply trying to enforce the law.

“Some laws people like, some they don’t, so unfortunately you walk this fine line all the time between being loved and being hated.”

Inspector Maxwell believes it’s important for all Bermudians, foreign residents and visitors to take stock and decide if they want to help the police make their new strategic reorganisation a successful.

His advice to the public - stop watching American TV crime dramas which frequently depicts witnesses to crime being “knocked off”.

“It seems to have crept into the public mind here that if they inform on somebody, they will get knocked off, or find themselves feeding the fishes. It just doesn’t happen.”

He adds: “I’m not saying there won’t be some sort of reprisals somewhere down the road if it’s a close-knit community informing on each other, but generally speaking, it’s not going to happen.”

Inspector Maxwell insists that the only way to get a trouble-free community or neighbourhood is to stop the trouble and the public can do this by talking to the police.

When it comes to information received from the public, he insists police simply don’t reveal their sources.

But if members of the public are genuinely afraid their identities could leak back to the criminals they want to inform on, they can simply call Crime-Stoppers - which guarantees their anonymity.

“We don’t work like that (leaking confidential information to suspected wrongdoers) and we don’t have the Tony Sopranos of the world walking around Bermuda knocking people off,” he adds.

The 50-year-old adds sadly that Bermuda isn’t the same country it was 27 years ago when he first arrived here from the UK and you could leave the keys in your bike while you ran into a shop.

“Today leaving your home open while you go to work is like leaving $3,000 in cash on the pavement and walking away,” he says.

He says it’s up to each member of the public to keep their property and homes safe: “Get involved in making your community safe.

“If you see nonsense let the police know. If you don’t want to tell us, all the Crime-Stoppers hot line. We need the information from the public because at the end of the day, we need your help to solve crime.”

Inspector Maxwell is also a former member of the Bermuda Police Underwater Search & Rescue Unit, and has been asked by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office from time to time to help the Royal Anguilla Police Force solve a number of outstanding murders in that country.

So how does Bermuda’s crime compare to that of the Caribbean?

“We have our problems, like everywhere else. We are part of the Global Village.<\p>And when all is said and done, all villages have their idiots. So, like everywhere else, we will have our problems, but on a whole we are very, very lucky... we’ve got a very pro-active Commissioner and staff who are doing their level best to try and get some of the crime under control,” he explains.

This includes what he terms “nuisance crime”, which includes vehicle crime, hooligans on the street and graffiti on walls but also burglaries and house break-ins which affect people’s lives.

Before coming to Bermuda, Inspector Maxwell served three years with the Wiltshire Constabulary in England.

But he wasn’t always a police officer and followed in his fathers’ footsteps after school by working for the British Navy.

He spent five years at the HM Dockyard Devonport in Plymouth gaining engineering qualifications.

However, it was during an argument with his father one night about having to work overtime that he threatened to leave the Navy and pursue a career in the one thing he thought his father would hate - law enforcement.

“My father and I often laugh now that I’m a policeman and the disgrace of the family,” he says with a chuckle, adding that not long after he joined, his mother joined as a civilian, followed a few years later by his brother.

Inspector Maxwell believes Bermuda has given him the opportunity to do things he would never have done in England, like play rugby against English players he had once idolised.

A self-admitted rugby fanatic, he was the ex-captain of the Bermuda Police Rugby Team and represented Bermuda Rugby in the Irish Classic for 12 years, the event that eventually became the Rugby Classic.

“When I was first picked in 1980 to play, I played against Roger Uttley who was a flanker for England. He was huge, huge! I hero worshiped him forever... so of course that was great pleasure,” he recalls with a smile, adding that even though he’s not Irish, he always ended up playing against the English for some reason.

Unfortunately his rugby playing days came to an end when he was injured in a game against New Zealand.

But, as he explains with a laugh: “But by then I was old and decrepit, so I couldn’t play anyway.”

While most people wouldn’t consider being one of the registered drivers for Government House as a career highlight, Inspector Maxwell says some of his fondest memories come from performing that service.

He recalls with a broad smile driving English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President George Bush when they were on the island for the 1990 Good Friday summit meeting.

“It was just me, Maggie Thatcher and Bush in a car, I mean what an experience. Two world leaders in my car,” he adds.

He also drove members of the Royal Family including Prince Philip and recalls one incident that still makes him smile.

“It was early morning... I was waiting for the Duke of Edingburgh to come downstairs and had scrounged a huge glass of orange juice and a bacon sandwich and I’m standing in the door talking to the chef.

“From behind me I hear this cultured voice saying ‘Excuse me’ and I just know it’s not the Governor. I semi-turn and the Duke squeezes by me and there I am caught with a big glass of orange juice and a bacon sandwich.

“The Duke thanks the chef for a party that he had thrown and turns to look at me and says ‘Officer, once you’ve finished your sandwich and your juice, have a piece of the chef’s cake, it’s delicious and I’ll be waiting in the limousine for you’,” he recalls with a laugh.

With retirement looming in five years’ time, the question begs to be asked where he and his wife Gloria plan to settle.

He explains that over the years their circle of friends has continued to shrink as both Bermudian and ex-pat friends have left the island.

And it’s then that he grows serious and admits that he has been grateful for his time in Bermuda and will never have any regrets: “It’s been very good to me, but I am a foreigner and I realise that I’m only here on sufferance, but it will be hard because Bermuda is my home for all intense and purposes.”