young tearaways: "The Net is closing in!'' Community officers surfed the Internet and found a US Police project which taught young people how to resist the pressures of gangs.

Now Police have joined forces with the Ministries of Education and Home Affairs and private businesses to sponsor five officers to start the GREAT programme in Bermuda's Middle Schools.

GREAT -- Gang Resistance Education and Training -- will start in September, once five officers from the Police's REACH community team have been on specialist courses in Virginia and Georgia.

P.c. Grant Tomkins, who unearthed the project on the Internet, said: "It involves nine weeks of training with all the Middle School students in Bermuda.

"It is an anti-violence programme with nine 45-minute lessons, dealing with all the reasons why young people shouldn't resort to violence.'' Chief Insp. Gertie Barker, overseeing the project, said research between September and December showed an "exorbitant'' number of violent incidents involving middle school children.

Home Affairs Minister Maxwell Burgess, flanked by Education Minister Tim Smith, said: "This is a gallant effort to put community policing into a continuous process.

"This will go a long way to making Bermuda a safer place for us adults and our children. That's our commitment to the country and I commend the Police, Education and the private sector.'' He promised more Government schemes to clamp down on violence and forge more links with private enterprise after exempted company Jardine Matheson donated cash to the project.

See tomorrow's Living Section for more on the GREAT scheme.