Assistant Police Commissioner Mr. Wayne Perinchief was accompanied in the public gallery by his wife. Mr. Perinchief is divorced.

Axed senior Policeman Mr. Wayne Perinchief watched stony-faced from the public gallery of the House of Assembly on Friday as the PLP mounted a marathon last-ditch bid to save his career on the force.

Police Commissioner Mr. Colin Coxall also attended -- sitting at the opposite end in the section reserved for Government employees.

Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness insisted that PLP claims to have been given "new information'' which strengthened its position on the axing of Mr.

Perinchief, the black Assistant Commissioner, were untrue.

And he said remarks made after a secret top-level meeting between the PLP's shadow Home Affairs Minister Mr. Alex Scott had misled the public.

Mr. Edness said the only two documents produced at the meeting were a copy of the foreword to the new Police strategy and a letter thanking Mr. Coxall for providing statistics.

Mr. Edness was speaking after Mr. Scott told the House of Assembly early on Saturday morning that the Home Affairs Minister had broken their agreement to keep what was said at the meeting a secret.

Mr. Edness said: "It's important I do something because my reputation has been diminished. I was told I had violated a trust.'' He added: "When I read what Mr. Scott had said I knew I had been the victim of a plot.

"What would any member of the public think when they read that new, interesting and vital information had arisen which would cause the Government to consider possibly changing its posture on the entire matter,'' asked Mr.

Edness.

He said that his UBP colleague Mr. John Barritt had been present at the meeting with Mr. Scott, who was accompanied by Mr. Eugene Cox (PLP).

"Thank goodness I have a witness -- I was not the person who violated a trust,'' added Mr. Edness.

He was speaking as the House of Assembly debated the controversial Police Service Strategy, drawn up by top English Policeman Mr. Coxall, who was drafted into Bermuda with Deputy Commissioner Mr. Michael Mylod to modernise the Bermudian force.

To cut down on top management, Mr. Perinchief and white colleague Supt. George Rose are to be made redundant.

The axing of Mr. Perinchief -- the senior black officer on the force -- as part of the streamlining of senior management sparked claims of racism. Mr.

Perinchief, accompanied by his wife, listened from the public gallery of the House as Mr. Scott asked for a reprieve.

Mr. Scott said foreign solutions to Bermuda's problems were not appropriate -- but stressed he was not motivated by xenophobia.

He added: "Bermuda is grounded on the colonial Police experience -- we have imported the notion of strangers being brought to our shores.'' Mr. Scott said the PLP backed the moves contained in the Police strategy to promote community policing.

But he said making top-ranking Bermudian officers redundant was at odds with that aim and reduced contact with the public the Police served.

Mr. Scott added: "That link has been changed, if not damaged, by the suggested, if not needed, redundancy of the posts which Wayne Perinchief and George Rose currently hold.

"In Bermuda, in this very small community, if these plans and this programme are to succeed we have to make local judgments. We have to be acutely aware of the difference between what works on paper, what may work in metropolitan London, and what will work here.'' And he reacted angrily to a statement by the Police Association backing the Service review and asking for the Police not to be made a political football.

Mr. Scott said: "All 40 members of this House are charged with most, if not everything, which pertains to the daily conduct of this Island.

"While it may behove others to leave the affairs of the Police untouched, it would be a dereliction of our duty if we did so.

"I am sorry someone feels inconvenienced, but we are talking about the security of this country and the conduct of our Police service.'' And he added: "We are talking Bermuda. This is my land. If I don't say it, it don't get said.'' Mr. Scott added that compared to Island communities in the Caribbean, Bermuda had a lot of Police officers per head of population.

There is one officer for every 137 Bermudians, compared to one to 238 in Jamaica, one to 280 in the Bahamas and one to 431 in St. Lucia.

Only the Seychelles, he said, was better policed, with one officer for every 120 people, although that was a paramilitary force in an Island with no armed forces.

He added that the size of the Bermuda Police had increased by 470 percent in the last 50 years, although the population had only increased by 70 percent over the same period.

Mr. Scott said: "Bermuda's Police force appears to be, in the minds of somebody, somewhere, to have a special function -- it's a force which has been kept at the ready.

"We have a lot of men and women who are not readily seen. They are almost set aside as a reserve force at the ready. At least, that is my interpretation.'' Mr Scott added that there were 173 non-Bermudians in a force of around 430 officers.

He said: "Bermudians are valuable because they are rare in the Police force.'' And he said that the face of the Bermuda Police had to be a Bermudian face if it was to keep the confidence of the community and project a non-threatening image in line with policing by consent.

He said policing could operate on several levels, from the "bobby on the beat'' image, through to a civilian-style force, but detached from the community, and up to hard-line services mistrusted by the population and policing by force.

Mr. Scott warned that if the Service were to lose credibility over the Perinchief affair, "the only way it may be able to recoup its authority is to move to another level''.

He added: "The face and the image of the organisation must be one Bermudians identify with because we are no longer going to police by force. We are going to move into the community to become effective policemen.

"We will probably never know what we have lost at the announcement that these two Police officers were going to be made redundant.'' Mr. Scott went on to say that the frequency of white officers increased through the ranks of the Force.

And he warned the risk was, whether intended or not, that the blacks would be the people out on the streets and the whites will be in the offices.

But Mr. Edness insisted that playing the race card was a red herring, especially as the PLP had already allowed the Police strategy document to pass without comment.

And he added that Bermuda having a Police force fit to tackle the Island's problems was more important than any one individual.

He said: "I consider this to be one of the most important debates this Country has at this time.'' He reminded Members that the Police review took place against rising insecurity, fear of crime and a rapid rise in offences, particularly crimes of violence.

Mr. Edness added violent crime "came close'' to affecting tourist numbers and said that Miami had lost millions of dollars after well-publicised murders of visitors.

And he said the Police Service needed a professional eye cast over it to prepare itself to meet the challenges of the future and that is why two top English officers were hired.

He said: "I think we got two very good professional men. I have looked at this very carefully and I can tell you we have got the best out of England.

"I have heard from the PLP, from the Leader on down, how much they support this strategy.'' He added that the Commissioner had introduced the policy of local recruitment to Bermudianise the Police as fast as possible and the women's quota had been removed.

Mr. Edness said: "We will do something about crime and drugs and drug-related crime -- this strategy happens to be one of the main things we have to do to fulfil that promise and reduce crime.

"We do not propose to short-change the people of this country.'' In response to Mr. Scott, Mr. Edness said Assistant Commissioner Mr. Harold Moniz, who survived the cuts, "was the best person available to continue in the expanded operational post. I support the decision that has been made.'' He added that the assessment that resulted in the redundancy of Mr. Perinchief and Supt. George Rose was "both continuing and cumulative'', encompassing areas of review like "achievement, performance and future development''.

According to Mr. Edness, Government "accepts that the hierarchy of the Force was top-heavy. Most people in the community accept that.'' He said he was saddened by the fate of the two officers, who have been offered either redeployment in another area of the civil service or a "generous'' redundancy package, but that he "examined and re-examined'' the decision, eventually concluding that it was right.

"We must forge ahead,'' Mr. Edness said. "We must stand firm in ridding this Country of crime.'' Mr. Ottiwell Simmons (PLP), who insisted that Mr. Edness had shown "nothing but bias'' in the case, demanded that the Minister dissociate himself from the issue.

In addition, he said, it was imperative for Mr. Edness to appoint either an arbitration tribunal to hear the two officers' case, a board of inquiry or a commission of inquiry.

At the very least, Mr. Simmons told the House, "there should be a motion in this House to instruct the Minister to see that these men get a proper hearing.'' Asserting that the Police Service has an obligation to be "fair and just'' to its employees, he said that "that type of loyalty doesn't seem to exist in the Force'' anymore.

And he called the Service Strategy requirement that senior officers have as much overseas experience as possible "foolishness, nonsense, the essence of discrimination''.

"This is wrong,'' Mr. Simmons said of the whole affair. "This is sinister.

We must do something for these two men.'' In judging the reaction to the Perinchief/Rose redundancy, Finance Minister Grant Gibbons cited a "common failing'' among Bermudians.

"We tend,'' he said, "to think that some of the strategies that worked in the past will continue to work in the future. We see it in tourism, we see it in business and we see it in some institutions. In his report, Judge (Stephen) Tumim suggested that we are years behind in the area of policing.'' In an effort to streamline the Force, Mr. Gibbons said, previous reductions were made among lower-level officers, but "there was no equivalent in the senior ranks''.

"This was distorted, and it's being corrected now.'' Consequently, there was no "hidden agenda'' in the measures, he said, adding that "the new structure is going to be slimmer and more effective''.

On the PLP suggestion that Mr. Coxall hasn't been in Bermuda long enough to make such decisions, Mr. Gibbons said: "He has been here for nine months now.

I would think that he'd be in a position to make some definitive decisions.'' Citing the "long and controversial'' history of policing in Bermuda, Mrs.

Lois Browne Evans (PLP) said problems in the Service went back many decades.

"The Government has for years been playing around with the Police Force,'' she said. "It would bring in officers from Cyprus, Palestine and every other war zone it could find, and the attitudes came with them. There was always a certain air of terror and colonial dislike.'' On the current controversy, the MP wondered how "anyone in the reorganisation of a Police Service could destroy the careers of those (few) Bermudians who have gone upwards in the Force for more than 20 years. Our Bermudian detectives got commendation after commendation for cracking cases.'' Comparing Mr. Coxall to a foreign "mercenary'' whose slogan is "have gun, will travel,'' she added: "When you read that a bright young officer is suing the Commissioner, what are we to think? (Ch. Insp.) Larry Smith was a bright young detective. I would call it a political lynching of our young people.'' She said she remembered the days when no black could rise above the rank of Sergeant in the Police force and they all knew it.

She said that things had changed for the better, but added what cast a pall over the review was that "a bright young man who gave his best years, during the unpopular years when it wasn't popular to be a officer'' was "getting a kick in a particular part of his anatomy''.

Mrs. Browne Evans added: "It must hurt -- it's the wrong message to send to the community who happen to like and respect their Bermudian policemen.'' But Mr. Irving Pearman (UBP) said a lack of confidence had been building -- inside and outside the Police.

And he rejected PLP claims that the views of the Police Association were not representative of the Force in general.

The former Home Affairs Minister added that he had "the greatest respect'' for Assistant Commissioner Perinchief.

But he said: "There comes a time in public life where we have to make these kind of decisions for the benefit of the Country in the long run. I am satisfied that the strategy which has been created for this Country is the right one.'' Ceiling is `concrete' -- Allen Mr. David Allen (PLP) said the axing of Mr. Perinchief had caused widespread concern in the community.

He added that the axing was seen as evidence not just of the glass ceiling but a "concrete ceiling''.

And he said: "This strategy is already foundering because it is losing the hearts and minds of Bermudian men, women and young people. You can't talk about dollars when you are talking about trashing someone's career after 30 years.'' Mr. John Barritt UBP said the Police strategy would lead to a streamlined service with more sensitive reactions as decision-making was delegated down the ranks.

He said he had sympathy for those who were made redundant as a result, but insisted changes had to be made and Mr. Coxall and his deputy had to be allowed to get on with their job.

Mr. Barritt added: "These may appear to be the worst of times to some but given that opportunity to get on with the job, I believe that Bermudians will realise that this was the best of times.'' Mr. Eugene Cox (PLP) pointed out that if there were faults in the Police, the Government of the day had to take the blame for that.

Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade said Mr. Coxhall could cut crime by hiring mercenaries and turning Bermuda into a Police state.

"It would be like Singapore -- harsh and undemocratic. We want people who will understand and treat people like human beings,'' he said. "It seems to me the people who have the power in this Country are so frightened of the Bermuda that they have created that want to get a Police force they can trust and which will carry what they want it to carry out -- despite the effect it will have on the community.'' But Tourism Minister Mr. David Dodwell (UBP) said that the public had demanded change.

He said he did not want to see Bermuda join the ranks of countries the US State Department had been forced to issue warning to tourists about or for the Island to be forced to adopt a "compound mentality'' to protect its visitors from crime.

Mr. Dodwell added: "While we want things to improve from a local standpoint, we also want it to improve from a tourist and international business community standpoint.'' Mr. Dodwell also noted that the Police Association's executive, which threw its support behind the Commissioner on Friday, had been re-elected by its members after Mr. Coxall's strategy for the Service was published in July.

In concluding the House's six-hour debate which ended at about 6 a.m., Premier David Saul said it was "a shame that we got bogged down in personalities'' during the Service Strategy debate.

And he noted that no Opposition outcry was heard when previous Police administrations had made cuts to the "foot soldiers of the Force'' instead of eliminating such expenses as VIP cars.

Dr. Saul said: "We're not talking about a whole plethora of foreigners coming in here and making a mercenary force out of our Service. We're talking about two individuals who are here on contracts -- one for two years and one for three years.

"And that,'' he concluded, "is that.'' Mrs. Lois Browne-Evans Mr. Quinton Edness Mr. Alex Scott