Bermuda's two public secondary schools could soon be provided with their own Police officer to investigate crimes and deal with behavioural issues, The Royal Gazette has learned.

The proposal comes just weeks after the entire teaching staff at CedarBridge Academy held a sit-in at the school over rising discipline issues, claiming that about 60 students were causing problems.

Yesterday, Bermuda Police launched its new community beat officer team, and revealed that plans were in hand to give one of the officers responsibility for CedarBridge Academy and the Berkeley Institute.

However, Chief. Insp. Michael DeSilva said if the officer found the demands too great, an extra officer would be brought in to take over responsibility for one of the schools.

It is intended that the officer would visit the schools every day and act as an immediate point of contact for the principals and staff, should Police need to be called.

But he said although the officer would spend a lot of time at the schools, they would not be based there permanently.

Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith unveiled the five community beat officers at Police headquarters yesterday, and said their role was to find out where repeat problems existed in the community and to find ways of solving them.

As many as 15 more beat officers may be included in the team within the next two years.

Chief Insp. DeSilva, who is heading up the unit, said the idea of committing an officer to the secondary schools was purely a proposal at this stage, but he said it was the intention, and hoped to see it in place in about a month.

He said: "What we are exploring is having an officer dedicated to both CedarBridge and Berkeley.

"It would provide the schools with a direct contact to deal with issues that need Police intervention, such as some general behavioural issues, trespassing and crimes.

"We believe it will give an officer ownership of Police issues at the schools and he or she will be more inclined, therefore, to look at long-term solutions. It would give an officer a continuous picture of what is happening at the schools.

"Right now, every time CedarBridge, for example, has a problem, any officer can be sent to deal with it. They will deal with that isolated issue, but not necessarily look at the bigger picture."

Chief Insp. DeSilva said the objective of the community beat officers, in general, was to have people working at grassroots level with the community, forming partnerships, gaining intelligence, and working with other officers in the Force to solve problems.

And he said there was no reason why that same theory could not be applied to the schools.

He added: "We need to identify the right officer for this job in the schools, because of the number of different issues that the officer will have to contend with.

"We need to find a strong person in terms of investigative background, we need someone who has critical thinking skills and someone that has strength of presence.

"It could end up being someone on the team right now, or it could be someone else in the Force who is brought on board.

"The other thing to remember is that we can be very pro-active by having an increased presence in the school.

"Yes, the officer will be there to deal with behavioural issues and the like, but he or she will also be there to give input on community safety, the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse, as well as talking to the students about how they can take an active role in society."

Chief Insp. DeSilva said the community beat officer team will play a more strategic role, rather than just being faces in the community.

He added: "Imagine, Police officers being in two different groups but working very closely with each other. One group provides 24-hour response, which we must always do.

"However, the community beat officers are the longer-term guys who come in after the emergency and decide what they can do to reduce, minimise or eliminate the problem so we don't have to respond to it again."

Police Commissioner Mr. Smith said the five beat officers were not working geographically at this stage, however, when additional officers join the unit, they will be split up into areas.

And the end objective, he said, was to enable everyone on the Island to identify who their local beat officer was and to get them to call with any on-going issues they had.

The team at the moment comprises one sergeant and five constables, however, over time, that could increase to three sergeants and up to 20 constables.

The community beat officers are Sgt. Darrin Simons, P.c. Donville Yarde, P.c. Marlo Santiago, P.c. Derek Berry and P.c. Iain Simpson.