The St. George's community called for a greater Police presence last night at a town-hall meeting hosted by the Bermuda Democratic Alliance (BDA).

And while Police Service representatives said that crime in the town had not actually increased over the past ten years, they promised to provide increased visibility and more frequent foot patrols in the town.

Chief Inspector Tracy Adams and Superintendent Martin Weekes admitted that resources had been drawn away from St. George's to combat crime in other parts of the Island, but insisted that crime in St. George's was not worsening.

"If I've got people shooting each other on a regular basis in Hamilton," said Superintendent Weekes. "Then I'm going to take people out of St. Georges and put them right there.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't just open up another box of Policemen. They have to come from somewhere."

The Superintendent said that manpower was being limited by the current budget, 90 percent of which goes toward wages.

Similar manpower restrictions were also given as the reason why the St. George's Police Station was not open all the time. He said that because of the condition of the building, reopening it as a fully functional Police Station is not a practical option.

"It was built in 1912 as a Police Station, purpose built to serve in 1912," he said. "There's only so much you can do with that.

"There was not a suitable site in St. George's, so Government picked the building at Southside and they fitted it out as a 21st century Police Station."

BDA MP Mark Pettingill called for Government to allocate more money towards the Police Service, saying: "It's nonsense to blame the Governor, the problem is the money.

"Crime has gone up by 135 percent in the last seven years, and yet the Police budget is still the same. We're budgeting them $60 million, and that's going down, and we're spending $60 million on a dock.

"Tourists are not going to come and use a $60 million dock if they can't walk safely down the street."

While the Bermuda Police Service currently has a manpower of around 465, including those in training, Mr. Pettingill called for funding that would allow that number to go up to 650.

St. George's Mayor Kenny Bascome called for the implementation of mandatory apprenticeship programmes for Bermuda's youth.

"When young people exhibit antisocial behaviour, it means that they don't learn in a traditional way."

Referring to the relative thousands of dollars that it would take to educate a young person compared to incarcerating an adult, Mr. Bascome added: "Would you rather pay 22 up front to educate, or 66 in the back to incarcerate?"

Chamber of Commerce President Steven Todd and the head of the chamber's East End division Kirby Brackstone also spoke at the meeting, both calling for the community to get more involved in reducing crime.

Mr. Todd said: "In most countries, Bermuda would just be a village, and as they say, it takes a village to raise a child.

"We all need to play our part."