Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith yesterday revealed he hoped to improve legislation to better protect witnesses of crimes in a bid to bring a greater number of violent offenders before the courts.

Just a day after gangs of marauding youths wreaked havoc in Sandys on Tuesday morning, the Commissioner said the Bermuda Police Service was doing all it could with its present resources to deal with violence, but said it could not do it alone.

He spoke at the Hamilton Lions Club lunch yesterday about the growing complexities of the job and the need for officers to police both locally and globally. And he said the demands on Police forces worldwide had never been so great.

But he said in Bermuda, some offences, such as gang violence, drugs and assaults on Police officers, were on the increase and were proving to be worrying trends.

?The gang problem seems really topical and this week again manifested itself at White Hill Field on Monday night,? said the Commissioner.

?There are groups of individuals that seem very determined to wreak destruction on property and people.

?We are having to get in there and make the arrests with a view to getting individuals before the courts.?However, he said a lot of people who had suffered injuries or had property damaged in the past had failed to assist because they were not willing to give evidence. And that meant that often some offenders did not answer to the law.

?Unless people are prepared to stand up and say....there are some real impediments,? added Mr. Smith.

?With the gang problem, I continually reinforce to my senior management team (and other officers) to specifically target those offences where we have evidence to give to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

?Our time is to be targeted on those causing the most problems. That?s the sort of work they (officers) are doing. Singling out those that are causing the most problems. That works because we get the most prolific offenders before the courts as quickly as we can.?

The Commissioner said he believed a number of witnesses and victims were too afraid to come forward to give evidence, for fear of reprisals, but he said he had spoken to the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs about the possibility of enhancing legislation to greater protect witnesses.

He said: ?Legislation now protects a witness once the witness appears before the courts, but we are looking to enhance it from the time the incident occurs,? he said.

And he said both the Service and the Ministry was doing research on what opportunities were available to better protect witnesses.

But in the meantime, Mr. Smith said the Service had had a fair amount of success on the high profile cases recently - getting people brought before the courts quickly.

However, the Commissioner said the Police was also seeing an increase in turf wars, which was again causing problems.

He added: ?Some of the trends we are seeing are quite disturbing. We are seeing a very strong territorial doctrine that?s driving this violence.

?People are being threatened, knifed, stabbed and assaulted just for being in a part of the country that somebody believes they are no longer welcome.?

Some of the turf wars involved drugs, he said, but some were without any reason.

However, the Commissioner said he was also concerned about the increasing number of assaults on Police officers, and said the problem was the worst he had seen in three years. However, he said with improved equipment and increased training, the figure was not as high as it could be.

reported yesterday how Mr. Smith had admitted that he believed Bermuda Police needed more officers in order to meet all of the Island?s needs, particularly when it came to Policing large organised events and gang violence, and he said he had been in discussion with the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs over the issue.