To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, we would have thought it quite elementary for Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner of police for crime, to contact The Gleaner.

Yet, we yesterday quoted Mr Shields as saying he was "very interested in contacting the newspaper" to discuss a series of stories alleging police involvement in car stealing and abductions. His interviewer would be deserving of the editor's reprimand if he couldn't advise him how to.

What is of particular surprise, though, is that information unearthed by this newspaper on the alleged involvement of cops in a car-stealing ring, and how two men remain missing three years after being picked up in a marked police car, could be so elusive to police investigators.