of, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, deja vu all over again, when they read about proposed changes to the Police Service.

The changes, announced by Police Commissioner Jean-Jacques Lemay at a Rotary meeting, would see community beat officers reintroduced, greater use of technology to detect and prevent crime, improved assessments of the performance of officers and greater public involvement in the management of the Service.

Mr. Lemay could have dusted off some of former Police Commissioner Colin Coxall's speeches -- or the Service Strategy prepared by Mr. Coxall and then-Deputy Commissioner Michael Mylod -- and come up with much the same speech.

It may well be that some of the elements of the then-Service Strategy were incomplete, and it may also be that some of the ideas were tried and failed.

There was some dissatisfaction with the performance of some of the parish constables and it took far longer for technology like closed circuit television and static speed traps to be introduced. Indeed, the latter have never been introduced.

But the essential elements of the strategy and Mr. Lemay's proposals have not changed. What has is the year in which the speech was given.

Not all the blame for this can be laid at Mr. Lemay's door.

He came in as a Deputy Commissioner and soon found himself in charge following the forced departure of Mr. Coxall.

This, in turn, was followed by severe staff shortages which the Government failed to address and the decision was taken to move parish constables off their beats and into other "regular'' divisions. Only now is manning getting back to acceptable levels.

Mr. Lemay also had to deal with time-consuming leadership and succession problems within the Service. These, at least, seem to be resolved with the identification and preparation of possible successors now underway.

At the same time, the election of the new Government meant a rethinking of the Police strategy and the decision to undertake the core values review. The Government was entitled to take a new look at the Police and the core values was a worthy exercise.

Nonetheless, the public and members of the Police Service are entitled to feel frustrated with having seemingly come full circle in eight years.

All the public can hope is that the ideas will now be implemented again -- and improved on with the benefit of experience -- and perhaps this time Government and the Police will give them a chance to work.