To a degree, we sympathise with the police chief, Lucius Thomas. His philosophy, we suppose, is that he has to play with the hand that he has been dealt.

So, this week Mr. Thomas announced the rotation of 36 senior officers, assigning them new commands, hoping to peg back the rising wave of homicides in Jamaica, which is critical if he is to meet his target of a seven per cent reduction in murders this year. Achieving this goal would follow last year's more than 20 per cent decline in reported homicides.

We believe all right-thinking Jamaicans would hope that Mr. Thomas' strategy works; that the reassignments are effective, and that the admittedly modest target for the reduction in murders is surpassed. For even then, Jamaica would unenviably remain near the top of the global league table for homicides.

Unfortunately, we do not have great confidence in the efficacy of the rotations being implemented by the police chief; and even if the homicide rate continues to ebb downwards it will hardly be because of the effectiveness of the changing commands. What essentially the police commissioner is doing is moving around the same worn and tired faces to which we have grown long accustomed, some of whose sobriquets and reputations are more associated with old, wild frontiers than modern policing.

In other words, while it may be so in a handful of instances, we are not convinced that the majority of these officers will be bringing new thinking or a cerebral approach to policing. There is still an assumption, deeply ingrained, that the way to inspire confidence in the community is to warn criminals publicly to surrender meekly rather than tangle with lawmen. The stetsons may have been put aside but the spirit of Wyatt Earp still prevails.

We had hoped that Mr. Thomas would have used these rotations and last week's round of promotions for bold action, to signal a clear break with the old order and determinedly point the constabulary on an irreversible path of change. Which is not to suggest that change is not taking place in the police force; but it is not happening fast enough, and a shift in culture is not being driven as aggressively as we feel is necessary.

There are two ways that the commissioner could begin seriously to accomplish these and to place his own mark on the constabulary. When his predecessor, Francis Forbes, was leaving office two years ago, he urged officers in his age group and/or the requisite years of service to opt for retirement, allowing younger, bright officers to rise to the top.

Not enough has happened on this score, and it is not our sense that Mr. Thomas has been aggressive in the push on this front. He should be. It is an opportunity to remove a debilitating overburden from the force.

But even if he finds it difficult to winkle out the old order and he finds it imprudent to engage in an open fight, Mr. Thomas could have used the promotion route to leapfrog the deadwood. That's why the recent moves by the commissioner do not inspire much confidence.