Several police officers have been instructed to take up to three months off work as bosses crack down on the “excessive amount” of vacation days being racked up.Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva has told his officers to quickly use up their annual leave in a bid to prevent the Bermuda Police Service having to pay out for the build up of unused vacation days when officers leave or retire.This has resulted in at least 15 officers, including constables, sergeants and inspectors, currently being off work for up to 12 weeks. The officers, who were fearful they’d lose the time owed to them, started their vacations in October and won’t return to the job until January.Many other officers are opting to take a week or two off over the traditionally busy Christmas period.It leaves other police officers having to cover their shifts and BPS having to pay the additional cost of overtime. This comes after Government cut the police budget by $7.5 million, leaving them with 11 percent less funding than last year.Officers are understood to have accrued so much annual leave as vacations they’d previously booked were cancelled at the last minute.This has lead to concerns about an “understaffed” police service putting the community at risk and officers being forced to “pick up the slack”.However police bosses yesterday insisted there was “minimal operational impact” as only a limited number of officers were allowed to take annual leave at the same time.Carl Neblett, chairman of the Bermuda Police Association (BPA), said: “We have been told we have got to manage our leave better, we’ve been told our leave needs to be taken properly.“The Commissioner wants to see officers making more of an effort to take vacations.“The clampdown meant some officers have had to take outstanding leave right away.“They feared there was a strong possibility that they would lose it if they didn’t use it as it looks like that’s the direction we are going in.”A new police recruit starts with 24 days’ annual leave, and this entitlement increases with years of service.Officers also get given three vacation days for every approved vacation day cancelled due to essential police operations.Annual leave can be cancelled due to court commitments or if officers are needed to work a public holiday.It is also becoming more frequent for bosses to pull the plug on planned vacations because a shooting or serious crime has occurred.It is understood that Mr DeSilva is keen to shake up the BPS annual leave policy as too many officers are ‘sitting on’ too many vacation days. In the past the BPS has had to pay retiring police officers for up to 200 outstanding vacation days.It is now BPS policy that officers can only roll over 12 days per year over a three-year period.Detective Constable Neblett said: “In some cases some officers do have excessive amounts of leave but our biggest argument is that sometimes it can’t be helped.“If you book leave but it’s been turned down on a number of occasions then it is no fault of your own. Only if you’ve made no effort to take any vacation should management step in.”United Bermuda Party leader Kim Swan said it was “counterproductive” to have police officers off for extended periods at the same time.He said: “There is an old saying in government ‘use it or lose it’ to demand of civil servants to use up their time in lieu and/or excess vacation time.“That is okay in non-essential areas but it is important to note that in most cases especially in the case of police officers the accumulated time is for good reason.”Mr Swan added that public safety was “public enemy number one” and Bermuda needed to continue with an “all hands on deck” policy.He said: “At a time when Bermuda can ill afford to send the wrong message to the criminals, it is disheartening to hear that the Police Service could run the risk of being understaffed.“Also a shortage puts added strain on the officers needed to pick up the slack.”Shadow National Security Minister Craig Cannonier said annual leave was “an internal administrative matter” but Government had a responsibility to make sure police “get the job done”.He said: “My only concern is that we should never allow an administrative or budgetary situation to weaken our ability to properly police the Island.“People depend on a fully-equipped, fully-manned Police Service to protect their families, and that is the starting point for how we in the One Bermuda Alliance approach our national security challenges.”A Police spokesman said: “The Bermuda Police Service has a clearly defined policy on annual leave; in addition, the conditions of service (COSO) defines additional requirements for annual leave.“The Bermuda Police Service’s policy ensures that the conditions of COSO are met and ensures that there are strict levels for the number of persons who are on annual leave at the same time so that there is minimal operational impact.”National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief said it was an operational matter that had not been brought to his attention. He said he would discuss the issue when he next met Mr DeSilva.