Factual error: The fictional island of Saint Marie where the series takes place is a British territory - after all, the whole gig is about fish-out-of-water British cops in the tropics. Specifically the Commissioner explains the history of the island to DI Richard Poole driving him to the station the first time and says that it was a French territory but in the mid 70s they handed it back to the British. Despite that, throughout the whole series the police and almost every local drive (on the left) vehicles with French registration plates, specifically with the 971 code of Guadeloupe, where the series is shot. In the first seasons the British police also routinely sends evidence and other critical parts of the job to labs in Guadaloupe, effectively out of the country. Seems quite absurd that in 40 years the British wouldn't have established vital parts of administration and rely entirely on French neighbours.
Factual error: Marie is a female name. Therefore, the island should be Sainte Marie, not Saint.
Other mistake: Inevitably the officers have to concisely give to the quirky inspector a quick profile of the suspect. For their "background checks" they read from profile sheets. It is unclear if they wrote them themselves or not; sometimes especially in earlier seasons they seem to receive them. These sheets contain sentences often written in a rather informal tone that does not fit the format, and in fact often you can see that whatever the officer is saying in casual tone as if it were part of the dialogue is written verbatim on the sheet itself. Example; 6-8, when Florence says "He's big on family values and promoting education in the community", with her line already readable word for word on the sheet in Jack's hand in the previous shot.
Answer: There's probably no particular reason. Sets and props on long-running TV shows often change as needed and for various reasons throughout a series run.
raywest ★