A HOME Office experiment to modernise the police has disintegrated in disarray, it is being claimed.

Bexley's borough commander Chief Superintendent Robin Merrett hotly denies the £2.5m experiment is failing just eight months into a two-year project.

But he has admitted he has been forced to make changes to the pilot scheme which has seen increasing numbers of civilian staff being used for what were police officers' jobs.

Mr Merrett said: "It has not all been a bed of roses. There has been some good stuff and some not so good."

But the Police Federation claims during the past eight months, crime in Bexley has soared while detection rates have fallen.

It says morale among some officers is at rock bottom and transfer requests to other divisions have risen.

Mr Merrett says some of the new working methods had been a success and would continue.

He said: "Right from the start the aim of the project was to increase performance, results and customer satisfaction.

"We didn't just want to carry on blindly."

Mr Merrett admitted Bexley will be losing up to 30 police officers.

He claimed: "The whole of the Met is over-staffed for its budget.

"Bexley has 30 more officers than its budget will allow."

A new Transport for London unit will take more than 20 officers.

But Mr Merrett said 10 of them would be back working on transport links in the borough.

He has also disbanded the crime prevention unit saying it is a job which civilian staff can easily take on.

Mr Merrett said: "I am well aware some people won't like it because it involves change.

"But this is uncharted territory so it is understandable we have had to develop the model as it is being rolled out."

But the federation alleges the investigation of crime in Bexley has "totally fallen apart" and officers in Bexley have been treated abysmally because of a "kneejerk reaction" by senior officers.

Federation spokesman Glenn Smyth told News Shopper reports of the experiment's progress being fed to those steering the pilot project were in sharp contrast to those coming to the federation.

He said: "These schemes are doomed to success regardless of their merits."

ABOUT THE CHANGES

BEXLEY division was selected from the whole country to pilot new ways of policing for the 21st Century.

The aim was to improve frontline services to the public, improve police performance and increase police visibility and accessibility.

Changes included allocating a detective sergeant to each of its 24-hour response cars; creating four teams of detectives and civilian staff to investigate crimes instead of individual CID officers and using civilian police community support officers to undertake some police tasks such as warning witnesses for court and collecting CCTV tapes.

It is being externally evaluated by Sussex University.