Carlton Adams retires on New Year's Eve after a 40-year career at the sharp end of Policing. Here he tells The Royal Gazette how guns and the intimidation of witnesses threaten Bermuda's peace.

After four decades in the Police, retiring Assistant Commissioner Carlton Adams has pretty much seen it all.

As he puts it: "I probably had some involvement in most of the murder cases over the last 30 years or so."

But despite being in the thick of the action during some of the most critical moments in Bermuda's past including the notorious slayings of Governor Sir Richard Sharples in 1973 and Police Commissioner George Duckett in 1972 he has deep worries about the future.

While most of the public want to be co-operative, too many potential witnesses are being frightened into silence.

The outright intimidation of witnesses is a pattern which began in the 1990s and has steadily got worse says Mr. Adams, who retires on New Year's Eve.

"Witnesses avoid us like the plague. When we do contact these people they didn't see anything, they didn't hear anything. That has become a very pronounced change in proportions that affects our ability to do the job."

He is worried too about the rising tide of violence, often with victims unwilling to make a report.

"We frequently deal with someone at the hospital who has a wired jaw and is telling us, as best he can, that he doesn't want to make a complaint.

"There's certainly a level of that kind of behaviour that is disturbing."

Such serious attacks were now coming on a weekly basis, said Mr. Adams.

"Sometimes if we have enough information we will pursue it anyway. But there are times when we don't know who has done it, the victim won't tell so we can't do much other than record it."

Gun murders are now far more frequent, but he said not every thug owned a firearm. Weapons are loaned around, believes Mr. Adams, who does not think it is time to routinely arm Police.

Indeed the twin problems of guns and the lack of public co-operation was starkly pronounced with the recent case of Omari Gordon who allegedly shot at Police in the Middletown area before disappearing into the night, never to be seen again.

"It is not the first time we have had an individual firing at the Police and being difficult to apprehend. That was a feature of the 1970s surrounding the murders of the Governor and Commissioner.

"But the general and frequent use of firearms as is the case now, is certainly a new thing and it's cause for concern."

And the gang problem is another big headache.

"It is taking our young men down a path of criminal behaviour where a stint in Westgate is considered as part of the rites of passage. That can't be acceptable.

"Some of the worst crime is done by people whose capacity for empathy is non-existent. It can be really disturbing when dealing with these individuals that there is no level of remorse."

But understanding the criminal mind has been a key part of Mr. Adams' approach. As a 19-year-old he joined the force in July 1968, narrowly missing the 1968 riots, and was quickly moved to CID.

Senior officers introduced him to some shady characters in areas normally out of bounds to Police.

He was taught to cultivate the company of criminals because it would pay off in the end.

"Even criminals have a human side too. You need to have a level of understanding of who they are and how they function, how to best interact with them, because you will have to.

"If you treat them with a level of respect when you have to deal with them for their misdeeds they tend not to forget that. Every human being deserves some level of respect and consideration."

If they don't feel personally threatened it's possible to get co-operation, he said.

"But it is something you have to work at all the time, you have to cultivate that level of respect," said Mr. Adams who added that community policing was an opportunity for Police to learn those skills.

"This approach allowed me to infiltrate certain areas and derive information beneficial to a host of inquiries I was doing."

Mr. Adams was having to work his contacts as the pressure rose in the 1970s.

"There was a string of serious crimes and murders."

It began with the murder of The Royal Gazette reporter Jean Burrows in 1971, followed by the slaying of the Police Commissioner George Duckett in September 1972 and the killings of Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his ADC in March 1973.

The following month Shopping Centre bosses Victor Rego and Mark Doe were tied up and gunned down.

Low ranking Police were also in the firing line shots were aimed into the barracks at Prospect. Officers were on high alert and carried guns for certain jobs.

The investigations lasted five years, aided by Scotland Yard officers. Mr. Adams credits two of them for mentoring him, as well as Clive Donald and Lennet (Lennie) Edwards, who both went on to become Commissioner.

Mr. Adams has clearly seen a lot and some things still haunt him.

He recalls the case of 27-year-old German teacher Antje Herkommer who was strangled at Dockyard in 1992. Killer Leroy Burgess, who was on a work release programme from Casemates Prison, was later jailed for life after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

"That was a particularly brutal murder which I found disturbing."

And Mr. Adams is still unsettled by the last murder case he handled, the unsolved slaying of Glenn Wolffe in his Sandys home.

Mr. Wolffe, who was openly homosexual, had previous criminal convictions for the attempted murder of a former lover and for inappropriately touching a schoolboy.

"That's the case that ruined my sleep patterns to this day. Very often at night my mind would wander back to stuff I am working on and I sometimes get up and make a note. That one stumped us.

"Long after we had stopped looking at it on a daily basis I was still thinking about it."

Mr. Adams, who was a plainclothes officer for 28 years out of his 40 years in the service, worked mainly in criminal investigation, but also did a stint in narcotics.

He said it was difficult to gather the evidence to nail the big drug dealers given the wall of silence and also the widespread public acceptance of illicit substances.

"Drug use in Bermuda is far greater than people realise. There is a level of approval to the use of marijuana. And there is an alarming level of silence from those who are not involved, they say nothing about it.

"It is winked at and ignored by the general population."