branches, difficult shift patterns, bad attitudes towards the public and too few experienced officers in CID and the Narcotics Department are among the problems identified in the Police Core Functions Review released last week.

Matthew Taylor reports.

The Watches: Street policing has been depleted according to the report with just three officers on some night shifts.

An overreprensentation of female officers also weakened manpower.

The report said: "The deployment of recruits to the watches, combined with inexperience and low levels of street skills, has resulted in some of the new Women Police Constables being unable and/or unwilling to perform certain tasks. For example with a minor traffic accident in a troublesome area or attending a break-in, without male back-up or a supervisor attending on site, and an unwillingness to attend alarm calls.

"Women PCs cannot perform the jailer function as Police officers can only search prisoners of the same sex. This necessitates increased staffing as a male officer must be posted in the station as well as the WPC when a male prisoner is present in the cells.

"Another common example of the requirement to increase staff to compensate for high numbers of WPCs is the reluctance of many females to go on patrol alone.

"When a car is double-crewed with WPcs and attends an incident, a back-up car commonly has to be sent to the incident, which uses additional resources.'' The report said women ended up on easy nine to five jobs to avoid confrontational work.

It was recommended that other divisions should redeploy officers to the Watches if numbers fell below established minimums. A change in the shift system to increase rests and weekends for constables was also put forward.

The Service should request permission to recruit overstrength, said the report, to make sure predicted resignations and retirements didn't have the effect of continually leaving numbers understrength.

The establishment of a traffic accident investigation team was mooted as a way of freeing officers from mundane paperwork. The new unit would also design proactive road safety programmes.

CID: The report said: "There are said to be too many CID officers with less than three year's experience.

"Divisional CID units have to deal with numerous minor crimes such as assaults, wilful damage, minor stealing and trespass.

"This is said to occupy an estimated 40 percent of the available time of the trained and experienced investigators in the units. This is time taken away from important crimes.'' "CID units are unable to obtain experienced officers to replace losses through retirement, resignation or transfer, due to current operating practices which apparently prioritise experienced officers to activities other than CID units.'' The report also said CID was losing experienced staff to other divisions while getting inexperienced transfers as replacements. It was recommended on-the-job training be set up to get inexperienced members up to speed while investigating minor crimes should be put on the shoulders of other divisions.

Officers with CID potential should be identified by Careers Development Officers to bolster the division.

It was also suggested newish CID officers should be seconded to the Major Incident Room to get vital training.

The Narcotics Department: The report said numbers needed to be boosted beyond the current level of 24 officers to "deal with what is the major crime problem in Bermuda.'' It said the task force, which currently goes after street dealers, should be placed under the control of the Narcotics Division. The report said: "The elimination of drugs on the streets of Bermuda must become the first goal of the police service, recognising that by doing so the service will eliminate much of the crime in the country.'' It also recommended Narcotics officers spend time with other units to get intelligence and hand out training tips.

Special Branch: This unit, which deals with public order and protecting VIPs, is to be eliminated with functions likely to be handed to the National Intelligence Unit.

The Prosecutions Department: This department could also be on the way out to allow officers to concentrate on more important tasks and let the Department of Public Prosecutions take up the slack.

The DPP's office will also be expected to develop its own court security along the lines of North American courts.

The Complaints and Discipline Department: The review found that more than 50 percent of complaints submitted by the public about officers in 1998 were about their attitude.

It said: "These attitudes were generally reported to range from abusive to indifferent, but most fell within the description of `authoritarian'.'' "The second highest public complaint was over what was reported to be excessive use of force.

"Recently there has been a number of complaints about the techniques and methods used by the Traffic Department in its attempt to calm traffic behaviour i.e. "hiding in the bushes.'' This can be resolved by directed education programmes.'' The study also noted a strained morale among officers. Exit interviews found resigning officers unhappy with shift patterns which add to fatigue.

The report said: "(This) may be partly responsible for at least some of the abrupt or abusive behaviour of officers that are reported regularly to the department.'' Summary: The plan, which will take two years to implement, will see the force move from reactive command and control policing to proactive policing in partnership with the public. Redeployment will free up officers for important tasks and improve overall standards.