locals alike. A first for Bermuda's Service, the scheme takes officers from behind the desk to the place they are most needed -- our streets. According to deputy commissioner Jean Jacques Lemay, it's a change which is helping Police services around the world operate more efficiently. "What we found in the organisation was that there were a number of posts held by Police officers which had nothing to do with the actual delivery of Police functions; that is, they didn't require trained Police officers with special skills to carry out the duties,'' he explained. "It didn't make sense to have them continue to perform administrative or non-Police duties, such as mechanical or administrative work and things of that nature. "What the civilisation process does, is it focuses on identifying those positions which do not require the skills and/or training of our Police officers. It allows us to recruit people with the necessary skills to do those jobs and it frees officers, enabling them to be on the streets where they can provide a service to Bermuda.'' The deputy commissioner said that the entire Police department will be involved in the civilisation process and should result in 13 more officers on the streets.

"Once the position has been advertised and the candidate identified, we can release officers and have them assigned to various Police duties. We have made a commitment to complete the civilisation of 13 positions by April 1, 1998.

That means we will have 13 more officers on the street in various functions.

It is important to meet the date because we have been provided with the opportunity by Government to move in that direction and so we are working hard Putting Police on the street movement is one which is being embraced around the world for its obvious benefits, explained Mr. Lemay. "The Police organisation, at the time of pre-civilisation, had a number of people in different levels of command which prevented the Police service from having more officers on the streets. There were more on the advisory level and less in the service. Bermuda's Police Service is no different from organisations in the US, the UK and Canada. We're looking at the structure and carrying out exercises to eliminate all unnecessary areas of supervision. "The department is now shifting from a command and control organisation -- command at the top with orders disseminated through the ranks -- to a decision-making process. It's been brought to a level where service delivery is given, empowering the employees to make decisions. "There is a risk associated but if officers are going to develop leadership skills, we must accept that mistakes will be made which can be improved with training.'' The initiative has been well received by those on the Force, said Mr. Lemay, a vital ingredient to its success. "What Commissioner (Colin) Coxall has done has been well received by members of the Service and could not be realised without their support and co-operation.'' Thus far, four civilians have been hired by the Police Department to fill various administrative duties and everything is going to plan, he said. "I think it's safe to say that every Police organisation is facing the same dilemma. I think there's a need to find a balance in our staffing process to ensure that we utilise the potential of (officers and civilians) to the betterment of the organisation. When we recruit civilians, we get somebody who is already experienced in a particular area; somebody who comes already trained and who expects to stay in that position for some time. With police officers, we must train them to provide the service in areas such as, say finance or human resources. It can also sometimes create an additional burden on an organisation when an individual makes a career decision to move back into operations and we must go through the entire process again and train a new person. It is very effective to have a person with knowledge and expertise in certain areas behind a desk and more officers on the streets'' MINI SUPPLEMENT SUP