A top Police watchdog from the UK is set to put the Bermuda Police under the microscope.

Lionel Grundy -- senior advisor for Dependent Territory Police Forces -- will arrive on the Island next week to scrutinise Police methods in Bermuda.

It will be the first outside evaluation of the force since Commissioner Colin Coxall took over 20 months ago with a mandate to pull the force up by its bootstraps.

And yesterday Mr. Coxall said he was delighted to have his officers inspected by the experts.

He added: "It'll be for Mr. Grundy's own professional judgement to decide how we are doing. He will be here for a week and will carry out a very thorough evaluation.

"But I absolutely and openly welcome the inspection -- I am confident he will notice a number of major changes bringing us into line with the best policing in the world.'' He admitted: "It will be a painful process -- but it is good for policing.'' Mr. Grundy, who reports to the British Foreign Office, visited the Island in 1994 to give the force the once-over -- but his report was never made public.

But is understood to have followed the line of the published Tumim Report, which blamed then-Police chiefs for "an undercurrent of frustration, despondency, abandonment and hopelessness'' among the ranks.

Mr. Grundy is also known to have recommended that senior officers from abroad be brought in to work alongside then-Commissioner Lennet (Lennie) Edwards.

But Mr. Edwards opted to retire two years early on health grounds, while Deputy Commissioner Alex Forbes also retired.

Instead Mr. Coxall and senior English officer Michael Mylod took over as Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner respectively.

Mr. Grundy told The Royal Gazette in 1995 that the recruitment of foreign officers could save Bermuda the "agony'' many UK forces faced in bringing management methods up-to-date.

He added: "Maybe somebody from Britain would be able to bring that experience to Bermuda in the short term -- instead of having the agony of having to find out the hard way, you might be able to shortcut it.'' Mr. Coxall said yesterday that similar inspections to that planned by Mr.

Grundy are carried out annually in the UK by Her Majesty's Inspector of Police.

In the UK, if a force is found to be seriously deficient, options include sacking the chief officer, usually the Chief Constable, and the refusal by central Government to fund the Police budget.

Mr. Coxall added: "This inspection is directly in line with my recommendations that the Bermuda Police Service should be externally inspected to a high standard every second year in order to ensure it does not slip back.'' Deputy Governor Peter Willis said: "We look forward to an opportunity to have Mr. Grundy see things at first hand and get his impressions of the considerable amount of work which has been done since he last visited and, indeed, the considerable amount of success which has been achieved.''