that the drugs war is still the Service's top priority. Just about everyone can see that the pushers are beginning to reappear on the streets now that the heat is off after Operation Cleansweep and there is no sign that the Police can or will mount the second and most important phase of Cleansweep.

Many people will view the press conference as an attempt at a post-Coxall tranquiliser. Our suspicion is that the Press conference was an exercise in cosmetics probably pushed on the Police by politicians. We find that disturbing because it indicates once again that the Police Service is falling into the hands of politicians.

We wish the Press conference had not enunciated previously announced strategies as if they were new. The public's memory is not that short and we would prefer action to more talk. Bermuda keeps being promised closed circuit television detection systems, especially in Hamilton, and greater traffic control from speed guns and strategically placed cameras. We have been supporting such initiatives for two years now and it is fair to ask where they are.

It seems to us very curious that there was "outrage'' expressed at the conference over the fact that some of the print media is in possession of the appendix to the second Grundy Report which evaluates 15 senior officers ranging from Harold Moniz to Chief Inspector Derek Smith.

We have previously made it clear that we did not get the second Grundy Report from inside the Police Service and when this newspaper published the report it chose not to publish the appendix, which evaluates officers and is marked confidential but not secret as has been suggested. However, now that the issue has been raised at a Police Service press conference, we are reconsidering the decision not to publish and it is fair to point out that it contains what Lionel Grundy called "pen pictures'' of senior officers. The report was prepared following interviews with the officers last January and Mr. Grundy makes it plain that the reports are "solely mine''.

Mr. Grundy, the Inspector General of Dependent Territories Police Forces, concluded: "There are competent officers at the levels covered but I saw no indication that any officer has the ability coupled with the enthusiasm, to aspire to a Chief Officer's role in the near future, and certainly not the demanding post of Commissioner of Police.'' Mr. Grundy further said: "This dearth of immediate local talent has to be recognised and will need to be addressed carefully and as early as possible...'' And he also said, "If progress is to be maintained toward making the Bermuda Police Service a modern and effective organisation I see no alternative to continuing to maintain an expatriate officer in the post of Commissioner, beyond the period of contract of Mr. Coxall.'' The importance of the evaluation is that Commissioner Colin Coxall, in the wake of this scathing report, was asked to produce a succession plan for these very officers.

Added to that, Mr. Grundy was the honest broker in this whole debacle yet we are now in the process of reassessing senior officers, a process which may take us up to February thus wasting months of precious time.