Police will focus on road safety awareness campaigns after putting plans for better technology on hold due to the economic crisis.

Commissioner Michael DeSilva said funds will be so tight in 2010 that the force won't be able to pursue modern equipment which has produced positive results in other jurisdictions.

However, he argued education has had a higher success rate than enforcement anyway, so the onus will be on transforming mindsets on issues such as drunk-driving.

Earlier this decade, gruesome TV adverts in the UK finally convinced the public to drop the attitude that drunk-driving is OK and dramatically reduced the accident rate, Mr. DeSilva told The Royal Gazette.

He said advertising campaigns here would focus on newspapers and radio, while Police will also be holding presentations in schools.

Asked whether technology such as videos in cars and cameras on officers' helmets could be introduced in Bermuda, Mr. DeSilva replied: "We are in the bottom of a recession year. Our technology plans are on hold.

"Technology is on our radar because it improves our ability to do our job, and we have seen its success in other jurisdictions.

"But our relationship with the Road Safety Council and CADA is really important and I think education has a higher success rate than enforcement.

"Look at the UK. In 2002 it had the highest fatality rate in Europe. They launched an aggressive education and enforcement campaign and reduced the rate to one of the lowest in Europe.

"So many people living in countrysides in the UK used to go to the local pub and think nothing of drinking six or seven pints before driving home.

"There was a very aggressive education campaign which made people realise they could not think like that. I think that will work here."

Bermuda has lost 13 lives to road accidents in 2009 and figures earlier this year showed the Island's road death rate dwarfed most Caribbean islands.

Road safety campaigners say one of the key factors behind the high rate is attitudes to drunk driving.

On the possibility of random breath tests, Mr. DeSilva said: "I support this because of its success in other jurisdictions, but the details are a bit thin right now.

"We are still waiting to see the specifics or recommendations coming out of the Road Safety Council."

Mr. DeSilva said he is pragmatic about Police facing a tight budget for 2010, but that it would impact upon the modernising of the force.

"The money I would like to have is to take us into the 21st Century," he said.

He explained that by upgrading its system Police could cut down on time consuming administrative work to free up officers to work the beat.