Police Commissioner Colin Coxall is set to visit London in a bid to set up more exchange schemes for his officers and speed up the Service's modernisation programme.

Mr. Coxall said he would be visiting London soon to discuss training, new technology and force development.

And he said: "I am hoping to forge a link between ourselves and London for the benefit of the service and our oficers.'' But he admitted the force's training fund was already exhausted by new and better training for officers.

Mr. Coxall was speaking only days before two top officers from Bermuda jet off for a six-month attachment with London's Metropolitan Police.

And Chief Inspectors Jonathan Smith and George Jackson both said the time spent learning from Britain's biggest force could only benefit the Island.

Ch. Insp. Smith, in charge of training, said: "This is a tremendous opportunity for the Bermuda Police service and both of us.

"But it's not so much what I will get out of it, but what the Bermuda Police service will get out of it.'' The two men will swap places with two English officers, who are already on the Island, for six months.

Exchanges starting Ch. Insp. Jackson -- head of the Bermuda force's narcotics squad -- said he wanted to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible.

He added: "I hope to get all the information which going be able to make me do my job better in Bermuda and help the various drugs programmes we are trying to set up in Bermuda.'' Ch. Insp. Smith will go through eleven different postings, with an emphasis on training and recruitment, including visits to the Met's training school at Hendon, the national `police university' -- the staff college at Bramshill -- and the National Police Training Centre in Yorkshire.

He will also see how the UK handles training in areas like management, information technology, riot control, detection and driving.

Ch. Insp. Jackson will work with the Met's drug intelligence branch, crime squads and the National Criminal Intelligence Service.

He will also spend time at Bramshill and with the Manchester force, as well as studying drug-busting techniques at the major port of Southampton and Heathrow Airport.

And he will work in the anti-drug and vice squad set up in London's Islington by Ch. Insp. Paul Hoare -- the officer who will take over his job while he is abroad.

Part of the cost of Ch. Insp. Jackson's trip will be met with a $4,000 donation from the Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Some of the cash will also be used to send another drugs squad officer to Jamaica.