the Commissioner revealed yesterday as he again outlined his radical shake-up of the Service.

Mr. Colin Coxall said the Force was in a "time warp'' and that on one day since he arrived just eight officers were out on the beat.

There is also an urgent need to draw up legislation enabling the seizure of all assets from drug dealing, he said.

And a new policy needs to be adopted to counter sky high accident rates.

Bermuda averages 49 road accidents per 1,000 people, compared with five per 1,000 people in Britain.

Mr. Coxall was speaking to the Hamilton Rotary Club yesterday explaining to members his radical plans for the future of the Service which he aims to turn into one of the best small Police Forces in the world.

At the beginning of his speech, Mr. Coxall again stated anything he said should not be construed as criticism of previous leaders of the Service.

However, he added: "The Police Service is in a time warp and in need of a major overhaul.

"The cost of not undertaking this overhaul will be very high because there is a real danger that damage will be caused to business, tourism, public confidence and Bermuda's reputation if the Service is not modernised.'' He reiterated that the main plank of his strategy was community policing, putting bobbies back on the beat, by releasing officers through employing more civilians.

Too many officers, he said, are tied up with work which should be done by a civilian.

As an example, Mr. Coxall said a serving officer with a law degree was `found' beating panels in the Police workshop, a job he had done for eight years.

He told the audience that steps had been taken to re-organise the Police Reserve, modify their training and restructure their internal headquarters.

The low numbers of women in the Service and the fact that no woman has been promoted above the rank of Inspector will also be addressed.

"Clearly there has been a glass ceiling on women officers that I find unacceptable and must be addressed in the future.'' Antiquated "Dickensian'' and time-consuming administrative procedures were being changed and a new direction given to the Service. He said as he talked to some Constables he detected uncertainty over what they were employed to do.

"One of the problems in Bermuda is that we do not have definitive legislation to deal with drug dealers. We can only draw from assets of a particular drug deal.

"We must have legislation in this country. I think we would pay for a large amount of the Police Service if it was successful.''