scheme designed to identify future high-flyers in the Bermuda Police Service.

Peter Sharpe -- Chief Constable of the English county of Hertfordshire -- will lead a three-strong interview panel seeing senior officers.

He will be backed by recently-retired Public Service Commission head Jeanette Cannonier and BELCO executive Vincent Ingham.

The first officers to undergo the two-day extended interview scheme will start the programme on Saturday.

The scheme -- based on a UK model -- will include personal interviews as well as written and practical testing to identify an individual officer's strengths and weaknesses.

Around 30 officers of the rank of Inspector and above will take part in the programme, set up by specialists from the UK Home Office.

The extended interviews will be used to draw up recommendations for career development for the force's managers.

The two Bermudian panel members have already travelled to Britain to see the UK version in action and Home Office personnel have come to Bermuda to specially tailor the scheme to the Island's needs.

The Royal Gazette revealed last December that Assistant Commissioner Harold Moniz -- currently Acting Deputy Commissioner -- would not take part in the scheme.

But Mr. Moniz said the scheme was designed to identify officers for promotion to the rank of Assistant Commissioner and above, with a shot at the Senior Command Course at the National Police College in Bramshill, England -- a course he has already successfully completed.

It is also understood that Ch. Insp. Campbell Simons will not take part in the course for personal reasons.

And it is believed only one other top officer, believed to be a Chief Inspector, has declined the opportunity.

The extended interview programme was announced by Governor Thorold Masefield in October.

Mr. Masefield met senior officers that month to explain the scheme and to assure them that the policy of Bermudianisation in the service remained unchanged.

But both the Governor and Government have set their faces against Bermudianisation at any cost and an officer will not be promoted before he -- or she -- is ready to take over at the top.

The Police force has been without a permanent head since ex-Commissioner Colin Coxall quit his post five months early last October. Then-Deputy Commissioner Jean-Jacques Lemay has been Acting Commissioner since Mr. Coxall's resignation.

Labour and Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness said last October that all officers would be tested "before any attempt is made to go overseas for a Commissioner.'' But he added that -- depending on the findings of the panel -- a Commissioner from abroad may have to be recruited.