Michael DeSilva, the Commissioner of Police, has pledged that the loss of ten jobs across the service will have “minimal” effects on the Police’s law enforcement duties.

Mr DeSilva said the decision to allow ten officers’ contracts to expire in the coming months was a “last resort” but acknowledged that more contracts would likely be allowed to expire in 2016 to meet budget reduction targets.

The news of the pending redundancies prompted Walter Roban, the Shadow Minister of National Security, to urge Police to provide more specific information about who would be affected and what departments they were in.

“The Police do need to carry their fair share of sacrifice like other public services have had to and they did not suffer the benefit reductions that other services have had to,” said Mr Roban.

“This news raises a number of questions that need to be answered: firstly is there a fixed policy on how these redundancies are being handled; secondly is it Bermudian officers or overseas officers that have been affected; and what areas of the Police force have been affected.

“We support the Police and the work they do and they are to be credited with the work they have done reducing crime.

“We certainly as a Government provided what resources were needed for the Police service.

“But our concern is whether the redundancies will affect the effectiveness of the Police and the Police need to provide further answers to these questions because the public will be concerned too.”

Mr DeSilva described the move to cut ten posts as a “very difficult decision” but vowed that operational effectiveness would remain his primary focus.

In a statement he added: “The BPS has been carefully considering our options to reach the Government’s three-year budget reduction targets. This year, we do not have the benefit of the “Furlough Day” to meet the five per cent target and we must also position ourselves for a further three per cent reduction in 2016/17. We have been reducing our operational budget each year since 2009.

“Six years on, there is not much left to trim and I now have to consider reducing the cost of our police labour.

“Currently there is no agreement with the Bermuda Police Association to reduce the cost of salaries and benefits and that leaves me with a final option of reducing the number of officers.

“I have therefore taken the decision to allow ten police officers’ contracts to expire over the next few months. The contract expirations are spread over time to help reduce operational impact.

“This will not be good news to anyone but it is clear that it is not possible to keep all of our officers in service.”

Michael Dunkley, the Premier and National Security Minister, admitted that the course of action was “not the preferred option”, but he insisted there would be “minimal impact to operational effectiveness”.

He said: “The Commissioner indicated that these contracts would not be renewed and although this course of action is not the preferred option, it is one I support in light of the budgetary requirements of this ministry.

“This Government continues to support the Police in the tough job they have to do every day and I am satisfied that there will be minimal impact on operational effectiveness and that the Commissioner and his team of officers can continue to do the job we rely on them to do.

“The fiscal realities created by the historic agreements with the Bermuda Police Association are the subject of active negotiations. We signalled in the Throne Speech and the Budget that these conditions had to be revised to take account of today’s economic climate.

“That commitment is unchanged and so our aim is to recognise the hard fought benefits gained in previous years but to foster greater equity in areas like health insurance where currently officers make no contributions unlike the majority of public and private sector workers.”