An undercover operation which has brought alleged drug dealers before the courts is just one of a variety of hi-tech crime fighting techniques the Police Service plan to implement.

This came last week from Police Commissioner Colin Coxall as his officers continued Operation Cleansweep.

He told The Royal Gazette that modernising the Police Service was the goal he was seeking to fulfil while on the Island.

"My main aim when I came to Bermuda was to modernise the Police Service with the broad use of technology which is well established in policing world-wide,'' he said.

"This will bring Bermuda into line with the best practices used elsewhere.'' Mr. Coxall explained that 85 to 90 percent of the Service's approximately $34 million budget went toward salaries and personnel costs.

"Therefore, working on the premise that people are expensive and technology is cheap we want to maximise the use of technology to improve the effectiveness of our expensive personnel costs.

"High technology is the aim and this is seen in the improvements we are making to our communications system and our computer system and the use of technology to both prevent and detect crime.

"Everything we are doing is against that backdrop.'' This includes the use of high resolution, professional video systems in Operation Cleansweep to "provide unequivocal evidence for the courts of active drug dealers and drug criminals''.

Mr. Coxall said this would serve to make courts less reliant on the verbal evidence of Police officers.

"The court can see for themselves, caught on video, the activities of the accused and come to a proper conclusion based on that unequivocal evidence caught on videotape.

Coxall eyes technology to combat crime "Hence, the experience in the UK, where extremely effective video evidence has been produced before the court and resulted in a 98 percent conviction rate.'' Mr. Coxall brushed aside fears that the videos might be seen as entrapment.

"The issue of entrapment has been discussed in the courts but has not been proven.'' But he stressed that there were bigger issues beyond the videotaping of the undercover Drug Enforcement Agency officers involved in drug transactions.

The Police Service were in collaboration with Government, the community and the Corporation of Hamilton in order to use closed circuit television (CCTV) in Hamilton to prevent crime.

"This has been proven to be enormously effective elsewhere including Europe, the UK and the US,'' he said.

"Evidence indicates that CCTV can be anticipated to prevent crime to the degree of reducing crime by 30 to 40 percent, particularly in the areas of violence and theft.'' "Other uses of technology,'' he continued, "which I would advise Bermuda to use to prevent crime and save lives on its streets is the limited use of speed detection camera systems which have been proven elsewhere to dramatically reduce accident rates.'' Mr. Coxall said this recommendation had been accepted by Government and Labour Minister Quinton Edness. The Police Service was waiting to see legislation drafted to enable it to be used in Bermuda.

He said he also wanted to tape record interviews of alleged criminals "so the courts can have the advantage of hearing first hand the entire interview of a person suspected of a crime to help them reach a proper conclusion.'' But there were no plans to videotape suspects, he added.

Mr. Coxall said this also required legislation which had "unfortunately been held up in the queue.'' And Mr. Coxall said he intends to "bring into effect the videotaping of interviews of children who have been the subject of physical and sexual abuse''.

These tapes would be produced "as primary evidence in court and reduce the inevitable stress for the child having to give evidence in the court room''.

The Commissioner dismissed the idea that he was hamstrung by the legislative process.

"Throughout this I have had the enormous support of the Premier, my Minister and the Government for all these initiatives. I know that they are pushing to accelerate the legislation required.'' There was also tremendous support from the Governor, he added.

"I would not have possibly undertaken this major operation without the blessing and the full cooperation of his Excellency the Governor who was very understanding and gave me his full backing.'' Mr. Coxall also moved to reassure that civil liberty would be protected while hi-tech equipment was used by the Police Service.

"I think it is very important for a Police Commissioner to be open with the community who employ him with all of his plans for the use of technology to prevent crime and detect crime as clearly civil liberty issues are involved.'' He said his experience in England enabled him to draw upon very tight internal controls to prevent Police officers using technology improperly.

"It is vital in using technology such as television, CCTV and video systems that we do not unnecessarily intrude into the lives of the community.

"With this aim in mind, careful rules and regulations would be placed upon the Police Service limiting the use of technology to protect the civil liberties of the community.'' Colin Coxall DRUGS DGS