from heading up the Police Force, an Acting Minister said yesterday.

And comments which suggest that this is so are simply untrue.

Acting Home Affairs Minister Jerome Dill was reacting to the assertions that Shadow PLP Minister Alex Scott levelled at him in a front page story in yesterday's edition of The Royal Gazette .

Mr. Scott said the Governor, Government and Inspector Lionel Grundy want to prevent talented Bermudian officers from rising to the top in the Bermuda Police Service.

But Mr. Dill said: "Not only is that wrong. But I would say that is obviously wrong and most unhelpful.

"Those kind of statements can only undermine morale in the Police Service.'' Mr. Dill accused the PLP of having a selective memory because he said the Opposition did not challenge the decision to bring in the British officers if they were to be used as consultants.

"The underlying principle of bringing in someone from overseas to assist us was not challenged by the Opposition,'' he pointed out. "That seems to be an acceptance of the underlying principle that the officers should be coming in to assist us.

"(Mr. Coxall and Mr. Mylod) were bought in against a backdrop of rising crime and a great deal of concern about the Police Service.

"It simply does not assist us for the PLP to attempt to rewrite history.'' Mr. Dill also heaped scorn on Mr. Scott's claim that there was no genuine attempt to train Bermudians.

He pointed to the six month secondment of Chief Inspectors George Jackson and Jonathan Smith as one example of the kind of training that Bermudians are receiving.

Jackson and Smith will spend the next six months in England attached to various departments within the Metropolitan Police Service in London.

Two British officers of the same rank -- Patrick McRory and Paul Hoare -- will arrive in Bermuda around mid-January.

Chief Inspector Smith, who is responsible for training within the Bermuda Police Service, will trade roles with Chief Inspector McRory who currently works as Manager of the Criminal Unit on Kentish Town Division.

Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Hoare, the crime manager for the Islington Division and officer in charge of its drugs and vice unit, will take over the Bermuda Police Service's Narcotics department while Chief Inspector Jackson works alongside the Directorate of Intelligence and the National Criminal Intelligence Service.

Mr. Dill said this proves that Mr. Scott's charges are baseless.

"We are just not prepared at this stage to say that a Bermudian has been identified or will be identified to ultimately take over.

"All one has to do is to look at the last commissioner of Police and the one before him. Surely if anyone is going to be logical about this no one can say this Government is against having a Bermudian commissioner or deputy.

"We have had them in the past and in the more recent past. But right now there is some serious work to be done.'' Ex-Mountie gets his man: Page 3