GUERNSEY’S prosecution process needs to change to get more police officers on the beat.

That is the view of David Kendall, who is 17 months into conducting a two-year strategic review of policing in the Bailiwick.

Mr Kendall said Guernsey Police had recently taken steps to bring the prosecution system into line with the UK’s.

Retired police officer Mr Kendall said: ‘The process that supports the prosecution of offenders in the UK is much less bureaucratic than that existing in the Bailiwick.

‘If we can make these systems less reliant on filling out a variety of forms, reports and statements, even in the simplest of cases, that means police officers can spend more time on the street, which is where the public want to see them and where they can provide vitally needed support to the community.’

Mr Kendall said comparing policing in the Bailiwick with the service in the UK was ‘like trying to compare chalk and cheese but there are some similarities’.

‘Things that apply readily there, and which you might think would transfer easily here, may not because of cultural differences.’

Mr Kendall visited Alderney, where he attended a police and public consultative group meeting. He was impressed with developments in the island.