Tomorrow's Police feature focuses on a woman who is fighting crime in Bermuda from 1,000 miles away. Miami police detective Joan Clarke was part of the real-life Miami Vice squad until several years ago when she became a full-time call-taker for Crime Stoppers in Miami, whose call centre also takes calls from Bermuda.

Anyone who thinks the Marine Police do little more than messing about on the water hasn't met P.c. Larry Dean who has done night dives to fish out dead bodies.

In his 12 years with the section he has chased armed bank robbers and gone on risky drug interceptions.

Dealing with summer boaters enjoying the sun might make up the bulk of the Marine Police's routine work but it is when the weather gets nasty that they come into their own.

"When the weather is bad -- that's when we get called out.'' He admits some in the Police Service might view working the marine wing as the easy life.

"It's got a lot of benefits I won't deny. Some officers come on attachment in the summer to help out but most don't return.

"We get called out at three o'clock in the morning and it's a different world out here at night when the weather is rough.'' P.c. Dean will never forget the desperate search for Jeffrey Castro who went missing in August 1999 after taking a night time swim at Elbow Beach.

With one hurricane and two tropical storms in the area creating huge waves and treacherous rip tides it was Larry's job to brave the elements and find Mr.

Castro in the dark.

"We had to send up parachute flares.'' "It would be difficult to search in those conditions in the day. At night it's virtually impossible but you have to do what you can.

"When the surge went out you had a five foot wall of reef. It was unnerving.

While the other two searched I had to make sure we didn't hit the reef.

"At six in the morning he was recovered quite close to where we were but we could not get to him.

"The family puts pressure on you and that is understandable. They want the Police to save a life but we can only do so much.'' The cruel sea is not the only thing which puts Larry's life in danger.

Searching ships for drugs can also set the nerves jangling, despite the presence of the armed Police of the Emergency Response Team.

"It's more frightening if it's a foreign vessel. You don't know if they have weapons. It tends to intensify the pressure.'' But he says there are no high speed chases.

"It's not like you see on TV. We generally use surprise to get the better of them.'' Jet skis are now being viewed as a big threat to the Island's bid to keep drugs out.

P.c. Dean says he cannot say for sure if criminals are using them to ferry drugs around the Island.

But he says: "It makes sense for an Island this small. It's faster and you are less likely to be caught. Some of them do 60 mph. It's more speed than we are used to dealing with.'' And speed was vital in January when He was part of the team which delivered a fire crew to Marshall Island to battle a blaze which ripped through multi-millionaire Peter Green's luxury home.

The prompt response saved precious artifacts worth thousands of dollars during an early morning blaze in January.

"I live in Spanish Point and was in my office within minutes,'' he said. "I was in the rescue boat and we went out to see what sort of fire it was and to see if we needed to call medical help. The flames were already coming through the roof.

"We had two crews to take out. This boat took the pump.'' Less than 30 minutes from the alarm first being raised at 6.30 a.m. crews were hard at work battling the blaze.

"We were making trips until about four in the afternoon until we were sure the fire was properly out.'' He says all the officers in the Marine Section are trained divers. Motorbikes often need to be fished out from Hamilton harbour.

"It can be tricky. You will have to deal with fuel leaking out as well as the depth. We use lift bags.

"People tend to dump them at the same secluded spots or we get tip-offs about where they might be.

"Sometimes they steal them for parts and dump the frame. And sometimes they just take them for one ride and ditch them.'' But occasionally P.c. Dean has to dive for far grislier reasons.

"I have recovered my fair share of dead bodies,'' he said. "Searching for bodies in daylight is one thing but at night if the visibility is terrible you won't find it until it's right on top of you.

"It is unpleasant but it is something which needs to be done.

"More than anything it is the smell that gets me. It's pungent. When you inhale it feels like it's creeping down your throat.'' He remembers a French boat bringing in a corpse which had been sitting in the hold for four days.

"The smell permeated the whole of Hamilton Harbour.'' Reckless boaters are a major headache for the 14-man team of the Marine section.

"You see visiting yachters in boats you think couldn't possibly cross the Atlantic.

"We had one with four guys sharing a boat just 24 foot long. The cabin could only sleep two of them at any one time, the others had to go on watch.

"But it had come up from the south and they were going to the States.'' Local boaters can be equally foolhardy.

"You always get one guy determined to go out at the weekend. It might be bad weather but he's hellbent on going regardless.'' A close eye is kept on those venturing out in worsening weather to cut down on problems locating them later on.

"We talk to them get an idea of where they are going. It's a lot better than calling his house later and talking to his wife who might not know what the boat looks like or where her husband was going.'' And the bad weather brings more mundane matters. There are about 10,000 boats on the Island -- after each storm Marine Police comb the Island to spot those which are sinking or have broken free from their moorings.

Moored boats are also vulnerable to thieves.

The night provides an opportunity for pilfer -- but it also gives Marine Police the cover to catch them in the act.

"We turn off the lights on the boat and then wait to see if anything's going on.'' P.c. Dean, 33, loves his job, even though it affects his home life: "My wife is always trying to get me to go to the beach but it's the last thing I want to do at the weekend.'' He fell into the section by accident when he was sent on attachment 12 years ago.

"At the time I wasn't even aware there was a marine section. But I love the water and I love boats. You do a little bit of everything here.'' Some of the less obvious tasks include transporting visiting VIPs on tours of the Island, including US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, as well as escorting Government officials to snoop on possible building abuses on Bermuda's islands.

"The Planning Department calls us because you find secluded islands can only be properly viewed from the water. You might find someone putting a wall up without a permit.'' The job also has its lighter moments such as stopping a Boston Whaler which was circling at great speed after throwing its owner into the water on the North Shore.

The embarrassed boater was picked up by P.c. Dean. "He said it was full of gas. It was going to carry on circling for an hour if we let it carry on.

"It took us 20 minutes to get close enough to switch the engine off. A man watching from the shore said we looked like two cowboys trying to rope a calf!'' But it was playing cops and robbers rather than cowboys which gave Larry one of his most memorable moments.

"They robbed the Bank of Bermuda in Somerset in 1997 and then hopped into a Boston Whaler and made off across the Great Sound.

"We had just come back from a patrol when this Police car came screaming down the road and told us to get back in the water.

"The robbers had just come off the Naval Annex and were crossing to Jew's Bay.

"We were told they had weapons and they had fired shots in the bank. We had no weapons and were not in a position to intercept them so we followed them about from a couple of hundred yards away.

"When they spotted us they made a hasty turn to Riddell's Bay. They got off and ran onto the golf course but there was only one way in and one way out.

"They were caught by the Emergency Response Team.'' Rupert Archibald was sentenced to 30 years for the robbery while Michael Dillas got 18 years.

"They had basically corralled themselves. It wasn't very well thought out.''