The Bermuda Police leadership must remain silent on the raging controversy about overseas hiring of the top two officers, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Perinchief said yesterday.

"The Bermuda Police Service is a disciplined body whose members collectively and individually have sworn to serve the public free from the vicissitudes of politics,'' Mr. Perinchief told the Hamilton Lions Club.

In a wide-ranging speech and question and answer session, Mr. Perinchief called for creation of a community-based "Police authority,'' saying the lack of such a body was the major organisational obstacle to Police achieving their objectives.

Mr. Perinchief, who many Bermudians feel should be named Commissioner instead of a senior officer about to be hired from Britain, said one thing had remained constant throughout the controversy -- "public support for the Bermuda Police Service, and a genuine belief that with a little help and some resources we can get the job done.'' In introducing Mr. Perinchief, Lion Dr. Vincent Bridgewater outlined his 31 years of Police experience, academic credentials that include a Masters Degree in Management and Human Resource Development from Webster University, and extra Police training in Canada, the United States and Britain. "Suffice it to say that he's well-equipped for most things that he sets out to do,'' Dr.

Bridgewater said.

Later refusing to comment on news stories about a report of a domestic dispute at his residence in 1991 which was deleted from the Police computer, Mr.

Perinchief compared the bond between Police and the Bermudian people to a marriage.

"Sometimes we argue and fall out, and sometimes we kiss and make up, but woe betide the person who would seek to come between us,'' he said in the speech.

The Assistant Commissioner also said: There is a link between recent cuts of $3 million from the Police budget and the rise in crime; Police are about to introduce a Crime Stoppers cash for tips programme; Bermudian policing "is based on the British model,'' and "there is much that each of us can learn from the other;'' Bermuda has been "very much in denial'' about drugs and other problems, and would not be so hesitant to introduce drug testing in schools and the workplace "if we were not afraid of what we might find.'' In response to a question from the floor, Mr. Perinchief said the major organisational obstacle to Bermuda Police meeting its objectives was the lack of a community-based "Police authority'' similar to those found in the United Kingdom.

In the UK, a local council works in conjunction with someone from the Home Office and provides "half the funding and most of the objectives,'' for the Police, Mr. Perinchief said.

The system provides "instant feedback as to where the priorities lie, rather than us only responding when we can't do something, or when there's been a terrible problem after the fact.'' There should be "a structured set-up'' to work with the community, he said.

While a strengthened Police Advisory Board would help, some of the change required to make the service community-driven would be "a Constitutional matter,'' Mr. Perinchief said. Currently, the Governor is "the Commander in Chief'' and certain powers are delegated to the Minister of Delegated Affairs.

Mr. Perinchief said the present organisational structure was "a hangover'' from the force's historical development. "We're now in a transition stage shifting to community-driven service,'' he said.

He announced a Crime Stoppers programme, which will be supported by community donations, will replace the current "ad hoc'' system of offering rewards for anonymous tips. Such a programme was advocated in an article in The Royal Gazette last fall.

SILENT -- Assistant Commissioner Wayne Perinchief addresses Hamilton Lions.