The Service Strategy of the Bermuda Police Service needs to be supported before Bermuda can get on top of its growing crime and drug problem, a Government senator said yesterday.

Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Sen. Yvette Swan introduced the debate on the report in the Upper House yesterday.

She said that Police Commissioner Colin Coxall did a 90-day study before he compiled the report.

Sen. Swan said both he and deputy commissioner Michael Mylod saw morale building as their major duty within the organisation as well as improving public confidence in the Service.

She said the report stressed equal treatment of all before the law as well as crime prevention, accident reduction and the increased visibility of officers.

Sen Swan said Mr. Coxall took over an organisation that had a low deployment of officers on patrol, a high use of ticketing as a means of traffic control and a high number of senior officers relative to other ranks.

In fact, she pointed out, Bermuda with less than 500 officers, had more senior officers than the 5,000 strong Thames Valley Police Service.

Further examples of wastage she said were the numbers of Police officers who act as clerks, secretaries and mechanics and the low numbers of civilian support staff.

There were plans in the future she said to introduce a criminal intelligence system and improve the level of detective skills throughout the service and include the uniform section.

Sen. Swan said the report recognised that civilians would be better deployed in some areas such as the head of human resources, finance and management services.

She said officers will continue to be sent overseas for training. At this point there were negotiations in place for an exchange programme between various countries and Bermuda.

Sen. Swan said the upper ranks had been slimmed down with two posts -- that of assistant commissioner and superintendent -- being made redundant.

She said the report noted that many of the current Police stations, especially those in Somerset and St. George's needed renovating.

Government approved of the strategy and supported its implementation.

Opposition Senate leader Sen. Milton Scott said that his party supported the Service Strategy although they had some problems with its implementation.

He said the PLP had called for giving civilians some of the posts with the Police Service long ago but what was more important was the need to get back to the kind of community policing seen in earlier years.

While applauding the document, Sen. Scott lamented the propensity of Bermudians to rely on foreign expertise when what was needed was local expertise and local solutions to local problems.

Moreover Sen. Scott said that there was not anything in Bermuda that was not political and it was correct for the PLP to scrutinise everything that Government did.

Sen. Scott said that one of the issues that prevented a fully informed discussion from taking place was that the PLP was denied access to the Grundy report.

He pointed out that this report had been referred to on many occasions in the Service Strategy and the debate would have been more worthwhile if the Opposition had been apprised of its contents.

Women's Affairs Minister Sen. Lynda Milligan-Whyte said the increasing crime and drug use in the community was the reason why the Upper House was debating the Service Strategy in the first place.

She said women were "sick and tired of attacks'' against them and their children.

She said Messrs. Coxall and Mylod were brought in because Bermudians regard crime and drugs as a number-one priority.

But if the strategy was going to work, the whole community would have to support it, she said. "The Police Service can only be as effective as the community wants it to be.'' Sen. Milligan-Whyte said the plan would not work "if we continue to pick holes in it, if we continue to isolate individuals within the Police force and highlight their specific problems'' at the expense of the Police as a whole.

Sen. Gary Pitman (UBP) said he was pleased that Mr. Coxall had embraced the techniques of total quality management widely used by business.

Benchmarks, consensus building, strength analysis, and mission statements were common to both TQM and the Coxall report, he said.

Mr. Coxall and his deputy were brought to Bermuda because of widespread concerns about rising crime, particularly against visitors. And the crime statistics were already falling, he said.

Sen. Pitman said Sen. Milton Scott had recently talked about being stopped frequently as a teenager when riding his cycle. However, "it's nothing to do with racism,'' he said. "I was stopped several times myself as a teenager.'' Sen. Pitman said 83 Police officers would be replaced by civilians so they could return to the streets over the next few years. That would help bring Bermuda's civilian-Police ratio more in line with other forces.

Sen. Neletha (Honey) Butterfield (PLP) said it was wrong for Government Senators to criticise the Opposition for disagreeing with parts of the strategy.

A senior officer with 31 years experience and the respect of men and women in the force had seen his career "slashed,'' she said, as Mr. Coxall entered the public gallery to watch the remainder of the debate.

Concerns about crime had mounted due to recent events inside the Police, she said, noting that one of the officers made redundant had been heading up the new Crime Stoppers programme.

"Morale was low when the Commissioner arrived, and it's even lower now,'' she said.

Sen. Butterfield said "people are generally turned off when they hear voices they're not used to hearing'' when Police make media announcements.

Mr. Coxall's report pointed out "years of faults,'' she said. Why had it taken so long for something to be done? "Surely, the Government again is at fault.'' Senate President Albert Jackson said the strategy was "comprehensive'' and many concerns had been raised around the Senate table.

But there had been "drastic change'' in the community, and the Police Service had to be made appropriate for the 21st century.

It was likely that if fully implemented, the strategy would "provide to this community a major and essential social agency which will preserve the integrity of the Country,'' Sen. Jackson said.

There would be "headaches'' and "growing pains'' but "in the final analysis it will be seen that steps which have to be taken will be taken after very serious consideration ... only because they are seen to be in the best interests of all concerned.'' The motion was passed without objection.

See Page 9 for more Senate coverage