The chairman of the Police Complaints Authority has promised Bermuda a more expedient service after a couple revealed they had waited 16 months for a resolution to their gripe.

Coles Diel apologised to anyone still waiting to hear the outcome of a grievance, but said the authority was now managing to wade through the backlog of claims with the help of a newly appointed administrative assistant.

Earlier this year, the PCA had 70 complaints awaiting final resolution - many that had been submitted more than 12 months earlier.

But the PCA found it difficult to proceed with the accusations by directing the investigative team within the Police Complaints and Discipline Department without any administrative back-up whatsoever.

The couple, who live in the western parishes and do not wish to be named, complained to The Royal Gazette that they were still waiting 16 months later for an outcome to their Police complaint.

They said their first complaint was officially lodged in July of last year, followed by a second one in November.

But to date, they were still awaiting a result.

He said: "I am fully aware that the PCA has had great problems in terms of having no support staff at all, and I sympathise greatly, but something must be done because people should not be expected to wait so long.

"All my wife and I ever wanted was an apology, but we are still waiting over a year later. Something has to be done to speed up the process. The PCA needs funding better.'' The father said he would eventually like to see the PCA run as a full-time agency, with the power to investigate complaints itself.

And he said from the number of complaints lodged with the PCA -- 66 last year -- it obviously warranted it.

But yesterday, Mr. Diel said there had been a "re-birth'' of the authority in the last few months, and said things were already beginning to improve.

And he said with plans to amend legislation to greater empower the PCA, he hoped the relatively new authority would go from strength to strength.

Mr. Diel said: "We very much appreciate how the complainants and the officers concerned in the grievances feel about the delays, but I can assure everyone that we are beginning to make progress.

"It is important for everyone concerned that these complaints are resolved as quickly as possible. It is unfair to let them drag on.

"Waiting so long for a resolution was never our intention, and we apologise to those concerned. However, the system just was not working.

"But we can assure people that we now have support in the form of an administrative executive, so we are able to follow up on complaints more expediently and get through the backlog. We are all working very hard.'' And the semi-retired attorney said he hoped that the PCA would eventually earn a name as being extremely fair and professional.

He added: "I have never conducted myself in a tardy fashion to date, and I was unhappy that I had this situation thrust on me.'' The PCA was established in October 1998, replacing the old Police Complaints Review Board, to act on complaints made by members of the public about Police officers.

It was modelled on the New Zealand PCA, but faced many teething problems during its first two years.

Legislation that was slightly lacking was partly to blame, but the crux of the matter was the absence of any support staff.

And during its first two years in existence, the PCA has been so short of manpower, it has been unable to produce an Annual Report for Parliament.

Mr. Diel chairs the authority and is joined by four committee members. Each of them volunteer their time and effort every week.

The PCA receives the complaints, but has no investigatory powers.

Its role is to be independent and both oversee and direct the investigations as they are carried out by the Police Complaints and Discipline Department.

It then receives the files and rules for or against the complainant.

Mr. Diel said during the last two years, the PCA did not live in accordance with its constitution, but it now aimed to make headway.

But he said further fine tuning may be needed in future until the authority was working as smoothly and successfully as they wanted it to.

In the UK, Police Complaints and Discipline Departments aim to resolve every gripe within 120 days of them being lodged.

Mr. Diel said it was too early for Bermuda's PCA to start putting target times on its work, but he hoped the majority of complaints, which are minor, would from now on be solved within a matter of months.

"Where the complaint is more complicated and may involve medical records, and people overseas, they will obviously take longer,'' he said.

"But right now I don't really want to be drawn on time targets. We have had a re-birth and we are at last beginning to make progress. That is what is important, at the moment.''