Two Bermuda Police officers are in line to get hands-on training in Scotland and England as part of a new-style exchange scheme and more could follow, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The Bermuda force are set to trade officers with the Scots Fife Constabulary and Hertfordshire Police in England.

And Island officers could find themselves studying at the Scottish Police College, based in a Fife castle.

Police Commissioner Jean-Jacques Lemay said he had visited both forces on a fact-finding mission to the UK, completed last month.

Mr. Lemay visited the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan Castle, which is in the Fife police area, and later visited the force's Dunfermline divisional HQ.

He said: "We talked about policing issues and about some of the concerns I had about traffic enforcement and drug enforcement.

"We also talked about an exchange programme with Fife Constabulary, where they would take an Inspector for six months and, in return, get a Sergeant or an Inspector.'' Mr. Lemay said the new exchange scheme differed from previous swaps, including last year's when two senior officers spent six months on detachment with London's Metropolitan Police, set up under ex-Commissioner Colin Coxall.

He explained: "When we did a secondment under Mr. Coxall, rather than being placed in an operational role, they went around departments and talked about how policing issues were being dealt with -- in essence we had no hands-on experience.'' Mr. Lemay said that the reports received from the Met attachment were valuable.

But he said: "My concern was that our officers should have hands-on, operational experience and this was something I was able to ensure with Fife.

And he added: "Many of the courses offered at the Scottish Police College would be most beneficial to the Bermuda Police Service.

"I really intend to follow up on some of the training provided by the Scottish Police Services.'' Mr. Lemay also brought home copies of the Fife force's policy and planning programme, with a view to discussing it with his senior officers.

The document sets out objectives and includes ways of measuring the effectiveness of the force's response to problems.

Mr. Lemay said: "It's a model which is easy to follow -- ideally, strategies are developed from within so there is a `buying in' in place.

"You identify objectives then it's up to the people below to draw up plans to meet the objectives.

"And performance indicators ensure officers are accurately measured on that.'' Mr. Lemay said Mr. Coxall's 120-plus priorities had also been cut down to 112.

He stressed, however: "That is not a criticism of Colin Coxall's method because he only had 90 days to put that in place.'' Mr. Lemay visited Scotland as part of a three-week tour of the UK and the Republic of Ireland examining training and force policies.

He also visited the UK Home Office, examining research facilities and the unit responsible for combatting white-collar crime.

Mr. Lemay also took in the English Police staff training college at Bramshill, near London, the Thames River Marine Police and took a trip to the Hertfordshire Constabulary area.

And he talked over problems on the Island with representatives of the English Police Complaints Authority. A similar court-style body is to be set up in Bermuda.

He said he was "examining the possibility'' of sending a top Bermuda officer to do the world-rated Senior Command Course next year.

Mr. Lemay also visited Irish Commissioner of Police, Patrick Byrne, head of the national force, the Garda Siochana, and its training college in County Tipperary.

Bermuda's top cop went on the international beat because his Police experience involves mostly Canada/North America, plus stints in Europe with Interpol and duty in the strife-torn Caribbean island of Haiti.

But Mr. Lemay said: "I really had to familiarise myself with training in the UK.'' He added the adoption of a modified UK model of extended interviews to identify training needs and high flyers meant it was "timely'' to go and have a first-hand look.

Mr. Lemay said: "This trip has allowed me to get a really good insight into policing in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

"Now, when we're sitting down talking about policing issues, I have the benefit of my experience in North America -- but also the experience I've had from my visits.''