Last week she spoke to Robin Smith about her career.

Forty years after being "in the right place at the right time'', Carole Royer has left the Bermuda Police as one of its longest serving civilians.

Before joining the Traffic and Prosecutions departments, Ms Royer worked at the British Army Garrison in Prospect.

As other former workers left seeking new jobs when Government took over the buildings in the 1950s, Ms Royer said she was one of a few people left at the site.

Modestly, she said the Inspector in charge simply came by and asked if she wanted a job.

"I was in the right place at the right time,'' she said. "I started to work there, never thinking I would be here 40 years later.'' In the beginning she spent her days logging in all of the traffic summons entries by hand.

"It was a big book, I had to record everything. When you opened it, it was like that,'' she said as she spread her arms across her desk.

But in the 1980s, the entire process was thrust into the digital age with the changeover to computer "monsters''.

The transition was a little bumpy.

Behind her desk, faded newspaper clippings were tacked on the wall. One read: "Heads rolled over TCD computer''.

"I had a lot of help from a Police officer who worked here, Neil Anderson. He was very, very helpful to me in those early days,'' said Ms Royer.

"I would say to him `Neil, I can write faster than this stupid machine'...my favourite expression was `I might as well make a cup of tea' (while the computer formats).'' Also pinned next to the clippings was a poem, given by an "anonymous colleague'': Carol was a lady fair/She came from Dominica/She worked at her computer/And hoped it would not eat her.'' Fortunately for Ms Royer, she has long since become accustomed to the new technology. Last year, Police issued some 11,000 moving violation tickets.

"All those tickets come to me,'' she said.

Ms Royer said she would miss the camaraderie of the Prosecutions Department and the numerous Police officers -- her "children'' -- who she usually met on paper and often knew by number only. But she also admitted she had been the target of angry complaints from the public.

"This is my job. I see lots of tickets. I see lots of people I know,'' she explained.

"It comes to me. It goes to my computer. It goes to be dealt with in court...Why do they get angry at me?'' Ms Royer also lamented a recent trend in which more and more young people run afoul of Police.

For her retirement, she said she was looking forward to relaxing and perhaps spending winters with family members in the Caribbean.

She also spared a moment to give parting advice for those who might follow in her path.

"They will see a lot. They will hear a lot,'' she said. "Leave it here in the office.''