the same period a year earlier, Police Commissioner Colin Coxall said last night.

The drop in crime during the second and third quarters of 1995 follows a "disturbing'' 41 percent increase in crime during the first three months of this year, he said.

Speaking at a community meeting in Somerset organised by the United Bermuda Party, Mr. Coxall said he did not want to be too quick to take credit for the recent decline and he was sure there would be "surges'' in crime in future.

However, he described his first six months at the head of the Police Service as "a reasonable success story.'' The statistics were "an encouraging indicator.'' The crime forum at St. James Church Hall drew a mostly-white crowd of about 60 people.

Citing other figures for the six months ended on September 30, Mr. Coxall said handbag snatches had dropped 52 percent, over-all crime against property was down 15 percent, and domestic assaults were down 12 percent, all compared to a year earlier.

But the Police Commissioner who was brought from England to succeed retiring Commissioner Mr. Lennett (Lennie) Edwards said he was involved in a "complete restructuring,'' the success of which would me measured over years, rather than months. "At the moment, I'm wasting a great deal of my public expenditure purse,'' because the service was top-heavy and there were about 80 to 85 officers doing work that could be done by civilians, he said.

Cautioning that such statements should not be taken as a criticism of senior Police management, Mr. Coxall said he was also working to change an organisation which had "absolutely no goals or objectives,'' "archaic administrative practices,'' a "lack of experience at the most senior levels,'' a crime prevention programme only "in its infancy,'' and no criminal intelligence department.

He said drugs were Bermuda's number one problem.

And he agreed with members of the audience who felt there were not enough Police officers on the street. The crowd was told there were normally four officers working outside the station in the Somerset area, provided that number was not reduced by vacation or sickness.

Sen. Lawrence Scott, who chaired the meeting, was harshly criticised by Canon Dr. Arnold Hollis, after Sen. Scott cut short a young Somerset man who suggested drugs be decriminalised.

"You need to hear that young man,'' Rev. Hollis said.

Mr. Coxall said he had no view for or against decriminalising drugs. But any community that unilaterally legalised drugs, as Amsterdam attempted to do, would be ruined, he said. "It would have to be done throughout the whole world.''