shooting of a man with a rubber bullet is unwise.

Police spokesman Coleman Easton told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "We announced we were holding the internal investigation to reassure the public that we are checking if procedures were followed.'' Quite right, Mr. Easton. But how can the public be reassured if the results of the inquiry are never released? The public is no wiser today than it was on January 9 when Stephen Proctor was shot not once but three times with rubber bullets by an Emergency Response Team member.

The public respects the fact that the ERT members have a difficult and dangerous job to do. That is why they are armed -- and rubber bullets are potentially deadly -- and given a high degree of anonymity.

But that also means that they need to operate within strict guidelines and must be held accountable for their actions.

The public has no idea if the correct procedures were followed in this case.

Indeed, the public does not even know what the correct procedures are.

If they were followed, then the Police should say so and they should also say what they are.

If they were not, the public needs to know why not, what actions were taken against the officer concerned and what is being done to prevent a repeat of the offence.

The Police need to answer whether the officer who fired the rubber bullets was ordered to do so, and if not, if he had been given permission to fire, and he also needs to answer whether it was necessary to fire three rounds.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Michael Dunkley was right when he said: "The Police want to continue to build public confidence and to do that they should share as much information as possible with the public.

"In the end it will lead us all in the community to want to work with the Police if we have buy-in and feel comfortable with them as a team.

"If you have an inquiry and keep the results secret, it can only hamper that relationship and this type of thing can only make this harder to accomplish.'' No-one disputes that the Police as a whole have a difficult job and cannot reveal everything they know or do immediately. But few within or without the Police would disagree that it has a poor public image in some parts of the community.

Refusing to reveal the results of inquiries into incidents like the one on January 9 can only do harm and damage the Police's image. The Police should make the results of the inquiry public and they should do so quickly.