Commissioner Colin Coxall announced in this newspaper on Saturday morning. The public had come to see Colin Coxall as one of the solutions to Bermuda's problems.

We are aware that some members of the Government had severe conflicts of authority with Commissioner Coxall, perhaps stemming from their inability to control him to political ends. However we cannot understand why senior people could not have overcome these conflicts simply by looking at what the man was doing for the Country.

Bermudians want to be safe in their homes and on the streets and they want their children to be safe from drugs. Whatever the Government's problems with the Police Commissioner, he was seen as going a long way in a short time to achieving those aims. Now there will be a perception, once again, that the Police Service is rudderless.

Colin Coxall was brought to Bermuda to do the extremely difficult job of dragging the stagnant Police Service into the age of modern policing. No man could do that without causing controversy, without making mistakes or without angering those Police officers he had to get into shape.

The Government's first mistake was appointing him for only three years which was clearly insufficient time to do the complex job required. The second mistake was a failure to give him sufficient public support when the Progressive Labour Party chose to kick him at every turn. As so often happens in Bermuda, an outside expert was appointed to do a job for Bermuda and then subjected to criticism for doing that job. Bermudians enjoy degrading those who succeed.

We wondered early in his appointment why he did not leave when he first understood that he would receive little respect and precious little political support, no matter how well he did his job. It is fair to say that he did extract from Government a good deal of financial support. But Colin Coxall was a determined professional, efficient, honest and experienced in policing.

There are very few people who will tell you that he did not do a good job. His very success might well have been his undoing. He will be hard to replace and Bermuda will probably have to look overseas once again with yet another political row resulting.

We thought he would be reappointed at the end of his term simply because he was so effective and it was very clear that there was no Bermudian ready to replace him. That lack of training was not Colin Coxall's fault. That was a problem created by his predecessors who allowed a vacuum to exist in the second string by failing to attract and keep talented officers. Colin Coxall could not develop experienced and well trained successors in two and a half years; no-one could.

The public will doubtless see the Commissioner's resignation as rooted in the John Irving Pearman Affair whether it was or not. That being the case, it sends a message that no Commissioner is ever to go anywhere near a Cabinet Minister. That is totally wrong in general and in this instance because all Colin Coxall and the Governor did in relation to Mr. Pearman was their duty.

The public will also see the resignation as having been forced on the Commissioner and will think politicians have gotten rid of the Commissioner despite the fact that Government House held the ultimate authority.

That will send a message of safety to the criminal element in the Country, especially those involved in drugs, that if you make sufficient fuss, you can get rid of a Commissioner. That is totally wrong because no Police Commissioner should be hobbled.

Whatever the explanation for the resignation of Colin Coxall, the fact is that it is very bad for the fight against crime and drugs and it will be extremely difficult to energise that fight again.