Police Service show there are problems. But it also shows many of them are being solved.

There is no question the Service had serious problems in the early 1990s, exacerbated by budget cuts at a time when crime was rising.

But the Police, then still a Force and not a Service, was also in a rut, still doing things the same way that they had been done in the 1960s and 1970s.

For a long time, the system worked, but it failed to account for changes in management style, the population and those making up the Service itself.

Some good officers were stifled and some good ideas, like community policing, were as well for philosophical and financial reasons.

The arrival of Commissioner Colin Coxall signalled the beginning of reforms in the Service, not only because he was a highly competent manager, but because Government and the community recognised the need for change and supported it.

With his departure, reforms slowed down, not only because he was no longer at the helm, but because a change of command, especially one which takes place amidst recriminations and bad feeling, will inevitably suffer from some bumps in the road.

Today, the Service is at a crossroads. Mr. Lemay accepts some of the allegations made in our recent series and in other news reports while disputing others.

There seems to be little doubt that there are problems with sexual harassment towards women officers in the Service, and it also appears that women officers are under-represented in the senior ranks.

There is no reason why a woman cannot be a Police Commissioner; at the same time, putting two women officers on patrol in areas where crowds are likely to be violent places them at greater risk than it does physically stronger and larger male officers.

Some equipment is sub-standard while more work and money -- like many organisations in Bermuda -- needs to be devoted to training and education of officers.

Mr. Lemay has agreed that there are problems and seems to be moving to solve them, and he acknowledges especially that morale is slow.

While some will suspect that the Core Functions Review now being carried out on the Service will end up duplicating much of the Coxall Service Strategy, any review which has the end result of putting better trained Police where they are needed deserves to be supported.

But so do the officers who are on the front lines. They are the ones who have to deal with undermanning and poor equipment. They deserve to have their voices heard when they report problems and suggest solutions. That may prevent the departures of more officers like the three interviewed by The Royal Gazette , all now in the private sector, who chose to walk away from their Police careers.