A former Commissioner has questioned why the annual Police budget had jumped by $10 million since 1995 but there were now less officers.

Former Commissioner Lenny Edwards told The Royal Gazette that on his retirement in March 1995 -- due to cancer -- there were around 430 officers on duty even though he had a total budget of just $26.7 million.

Since then the yearly Police budget has grown by almost 35 percent to $36 million but the number of officers on the street is just over 400.

"Right now they have all that extra money but their manpower is extremely low -- lower than it's been in years. So they're not in a position to respond to calls as the public would like them to,'' Mr. Edwards said.

Current Commissioner Jean-Jacques Lemay admitted to The Royal Gazette the number of serving officers had sunk to just 402.

Recruiting difficulties on top of normal retirement attrition had caused the drop since the explosion of international companies meant some potential recruits were lured away by higher salaries.

But he was confident the situation would improve this year.

And there were now 93 civilians in the Service.

He said the extra funds had been necessary for improved training, equipment, computers and civilianisation to update and improve the Service.

"I hope that when I leave in April 2001 this will be the most efficient, most effective and most progressive Police Service in the world,'' he said.

And the current efficiency of the service would improve in March when the Core Functions Review identified any departments not running efficiently so money could be reshuffled where it was most needed.

He said a significant slice of the extra funds were spent on urgently needed new Police buildings -- with the Police Capital account up by $1.9 million from $660,000 to $2.5 million since 1995.

Mr. Edwards admitted the money spent on stations was "completely necessary'' but said it seemed a large slice of the extra funds had also been spent on vehicles. "I see a lot of brand spanking new motorcycles, a lot of scooters and cars, a lot of transportation but those vehicles can't go out and do Police work and solve crimes.

"Every time I drive past the station closest to my home I see at least 12 cycles sitting there not in use.'' He also questioned why Police continued to report lower crime rates but politicians and the public were more worried than ever about this "huge crime problem''.

"There seems to be a mis-correlation somewhere -- someone's not getting it right. I don't think the general public really feels crime has gone down.'' Former assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Perinchief -- now a Progressive Labour Party back-bencher -- supported some of Mr. Edwards' claims.

He said he had seen little improvement in crime reduction or efficiency.

"There's also been some civilianisation but I know that a lot of the effort toward that goal has not had the desired effect in reducing costs.

"In fact in some ways it's been counter-effective. I know of one job which was previously done by two officers and is now done by four civilians. That can't be saving money even if it has freed up a handful of police officers.''