There's plenty for Commissioner of Police Jonathan Smith and his Service to be happy about in the latest inspection of the Service.

The recommendations contained in the Inspector's report released on Friday largely deal with problems that the Service is already aware of and has begun to deal with, including the thorny problem of protecting witnesses.

That's a major contrast to the inspections conducted in the 1990s which were damning of both the Service's performance and abilities.

Still, it does not mean that all is well. There remains a gap between what can be measured ? crime statistics and how many cases are solved in a given time period ? and public perceptions about safety, which remain poor.

Much of the effort to modernise the Police Service has concerned improving the Police's research and intelligence efforts.

This can range from identifying high crime areas through geographical analysis, to proper collation and analysis of information given to different officers about crimes, drugs smuggling and the like.

The report says these efforts have not gone far enough yet.

And there still seems to be a lack of understanding of the function, at least based on Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton's comments at a press conference to unveil the report, where he seemed to think that it was to do with white collar and commercial crime. It could be, but it goes much wider and deeper than that.

Still, this is the technique that has been used with great success in North American cities and in the United Kingdom and should be expanded. The ability to quickly identify crime areas or increasing types of crime make it easier for the Police to devote resources where they are most needed.

But the second part of the strategy used elsewhere involves a zero tolerance approach to minor crimes and offences, the theory being that cleaning up these kinds of offences makes it that much harder for major criminals to operate.

That was what Operation Cleansweep aimed to do in the late 1990s and the much-publicised raid on St. Monica's Mission last week should be repeated daily, not every now and then.

The aim is to make life as uncomfortable as possible for people who are regularly breaking the law or being a public nuisance.

So far, there is isn't much evidence of this approach in Bermuda and this needs to be addressed.

At the same time, there is a need to demonstrate a meaningful decline in crime, and here the report's observation ? accepted by the Service ? that the community beat officer scheme is not accepted inside the Police, let alone in the community, is worrying.

To be sure, this is not the glamourous end of Police work, but if it is well staffed and consistent, it will make a long term difference, especially if law-abiding members of the community put their support behind the officers.

The problem now is that officers assigned to community beats will be pulled off to deal with more urgent investigations; this has to stop.

So this is a three-pronged approach. It requires good intelligence and analysis, tough and aggressive policing at the "sharp end" and long term crime deterrence at the community end.

If this taken up by the Police if they are given the resources they need, this might help to make Bermuda an even safer place.