beat -- by civilianising desk jobs throughout the force.

Police chiefs have advertised for an accounts clerk, administrative clerk and human resources assistant this week.

And there are now 73 civilian jobs throughout the 500-strong force, compared with 63 in 1996 and 43 in 1995.

"Approximately 15 posts were outlined to be civilianised for this year and this is all part of our on-going commitment to put more officers out on the streets,'' a spokeswoman said.

"These posts have been advertised as part of this process. Some positions are new jobs, others are replacement posts which were previously filled by Police officers.

"We civilianised the garage mechanics -- for our cars and motorcycles -- about two months ago.

"They are posts which would have been filled by Police officers before but the idea is to free up these positions so that more officers can get back to operational duties.

"When the closed-circuit television cameras come on-line in Hamilton we will have some more civilian positions to fill in the control room.

"Some of the Com-Op operations personnel will be civilianised, too.'' The announcement came last week as Police released crime statistics for the first three months of the year.

These included a rise in the number of stolen cars.

Seventeen cars were stolen in the first three months of 1998, compared with just six for the same period last year.

But bike thefts were down and 237 vehicles were stolen in the first quarter, down 43 on last year.