The Bermuda Police Service have replenished their fleet of patrol cars with the purchase of five new vehicles.

The fleet will get a further boost when 12 more cars arrive in the next two months.

Last September, The Royal Gazette revealed that many of the BPS emergency response vehicles were repeatedly breaking down and needed to be replaced.

At a press conference unveiling the new SsangYong Tivoli SUVs yesterday, Superintendent James Howard of the Tactical Support Unit said that an audit last October revealed that five of the force’s 44 marked police cars were non-operational and another seven had passed their life expectancy.

An additional seven of the force’s 34 unmarked cars were also still in service even though they should have been decommissioned.

Mr Howard said that although the Government had allocated $300,000 for the purchase of new cars in last year’s Budget, their acquisition was delayed because of global supply chain issues.

In addition to the five cars, which are made by a Korean company, that have just been delivered, two more cars – one marked, one unmarked – are expected to arrive next month.

Ten more cars – five marked, five unmarked – are expected to be delivered by the end of May.

The BPS have also received delivery of seven new Yamaha motorcycles.

Mr Howard said that patrol cars had typically been in service for between eight and ten years, covering between 250,000 and 300,000 kilometres.

But in recent years, cars have been covering that distance within four years.

He said: “Some of this is due to the limited number of vehicles that we have and the fact that these vehicles are on the road 24/7.

“The Government has committed to ensuring that the BPS has the tools it needs to keep Bermuda safe and has actually allocated $400,000 to purchase another ten vehicles – five marked and five unmarked – and a transit vehicle.

“I believe the fleet is up to strength. The issue that we have is managing some of the ageing vehicles. Acquiring the extra ten vehicles will put us in a very, very good space.

“Officers right now are undergoing training so that they understand the operational systems of both bikes and police cars. Modern vehicles today have a lot of computer systems in them.

“But come next year we’ll probably be asking the Government for some more money to purchase more vehicles.”

• Video from the Bermuda Police Service Facebook page