Commissioner of Police, Darrin Simons - "The Bermuda Police Service (BPS) has released its Official Statistics Report for 2021, highlighting key crime trends and patterns over the year. The report reveals a total of 3,165 recorded offences — a decrease of 4% compared to 2020 - and the lowest number since records began in 2000.

Key Findings:

Crimes Against the Person, decreased from 639 offences in 2020 to 579 in 2021.

Total property crimes dropped from 1,741 to 1,735.

There were 7 recorded murders, with 3 involving bladed articles, and 3 involving firearms.

Traffic collisions totalled 1,263, with 17 fatalities. One of the highest number recorded.

While total crime was reduced, the Covid-19 regulations that were in effect throughout the year, limited gatherings and social activities, and so impacted crime patterns.

While the report aims to provide timely and objective information, it was delayed due to the necessity to support core policing services and functions. This required reallocating resources from backend functions to respond to calls for service and enforce Covid-19 measures. Although the BPS continues to enhance its Intelligence Led Policing capabilities, the immediate need was to maintain service delivery during the pandemic.

The Official Statistics Report 2021, is accurate, objective and provides a snapshot of the crime that occurred, but it is regrettably not timely, given the 2.5-year delay. It should have been produced in April 2022. Officers routinely access the real-time crime data to make deployment decisions in the moment. This data needs to settle and undergo a rigorous review process before it is released to the public. The data that report summarizes was used to support focused resource deployment at operational and tactical levels in 2021, even prior to the report's promulgation.

Given this context, the report is useful in setting out what happened from a crime perspective and identifying the BPS's response to the pandemic along with the challenges facing our community. It demonstrates our commitment to transparency and openness in our operations.

Ultimately, the Official Statistics Report 2021, serves as a final point on how the BPS records, manages, and reports its activities.

Analysis and Future Direction:

As your Commissioner of Police, I believe this report is both encouraging and revealing of our challenges. It captures the immense pressure the BPS faced during the pandemic while demonstrating our commitment to community safety from internal and external threats. The report affirms that, despite exceptional circumstances, we rearranged our limited resources to sustain frontline service, reinforcing our pledge to keep Bermuda safe. However, we continue to face various threats and internal concerns regarding capacity and capability.

For detailed statistics and more information, we encourage the community to review the complete report available on our website.

Thank you for your continued support."