Armed Police are now on duty 24/7 and more are being trained but there's no plan to equip all patrol officers with guns.

That was the message from Police chiefs after calls this week from former Commissioner Jonathan Smith for more gun-carrying officers.

Commissioner George Jackson and his Deputy Michael DeSilva yesterday acknowledged concerns over increased gun crime. But Mr. DeSilva said: "It is vitally important that the Police response is commensurate to the level of threat. It's not the Wild West and we can't start arming ourselves to the teeth."

On Monday, Mr. Smith who was Commissioner for five years until retiring in 2005 said the public and criminals alike know that only a small number of officers are trained and equipped with guns.

He said consideration should be given to acquiring "several hundred quality firearms and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition" for the Police although he acknowledged this would come at a substantial cost.

"I'd venture to say that we're at the point where more Police officers need to be armed and deployed. To have unarmed Police officers routinely coming into contact with armed criminals is akin to playing roulette. Roulette odds are not very favourable," he claimed.

His comments sparked concern from some community activists that more armed Police could actually make the streets more dangerous, and spark Police versus gang warfare.

The former Commissioner stopped short of saying every officer should be armed, but said: "The progression to equip on-duty operational officers with firearms 24/7 is now an appropriate response."

Yesterday Mr. Jackson and Mr. DeSilva confirmed that 24/7 response is already in place.

Mr. Jackson explained: "I indicated in 2006 that I would be deploying armed officers on the street; I have continued to do so. My senior command and I regularly review the deployment of armed officers. I have increased the number of officers trained in the use of firearms and will continue to build capacity in that area. Where I see the need I will increase the number of armed officers available.

"We have a 24/7 armed response on patrol and our Emergency Response Team is available to respond to more serious incidents, or where tactical interventions are required. Therefore, do not be surprised if the officer who responds to your call is wearing a firearm.

"But be reassured the Bermuda Police Service adopt standards of selection, training and deployment that are consistent with best practices in the policing environment. At this time there is no intention to arm all patrol officers. Our response is, and will always be, proportionate to the threat."

Mr. Jackson refused to divulge how many armed officers there are at present or how many he intends to have in future. However, Mr. DeSilva said it was important to put the increase into perspective.

"It's increasing so that we have the capacity to provide an element of armed response capability from our patrol officers. So we actually right now have a 24-hour, seven day a week immediate firearms response capability. What we're struggling with a little bit is the capacity to keep that going, because the numbers of trained officers is not sufficient. So when we talk about increasing, we're talking about bringing our numbers up so that the patrol officers have sufficient numbers of trained people so we can run it 24/7 without incurring overtime and cancelling people's vacation and things like that."

Giving detailed statistics (see factbox) Mr. DeSilva said although Police figures for firearms offences earlier this month appeared to show a year-on-year growth in the problem from 2007-08, a more detailed breakdown showed a different story.

Mr. DeSilva added that all frontline officers have the latest bullet proof vests and regular assessments are made to set the level of Police firearms response to "an appropriate level".

When quizzed about Mr. Smith's claim that unarmed officers are playing roulette with their lives, Mr. Jackson said they consider views expressed by everyone in the community.

"We look at it and we respond accordingly, whether or not the advice is good, bad or indifferent. That's Mr. Smith's view. Policing is not a game. It's a very dangerous occupation and we are aware of that and we take our responsibilities very seriously."