Public Safety Minister David Burch has been blocked after calling for Police to farm out guard duties to the Regiment to help free up more officers for active patrols.

The news comes as it emerged Police are 33 officers short of the full complement of 469 while Bermuda Reserve Police, which has around 100 officers and puts at least 30 on the street each week, have had operations suspended.

A brief Police press release yesterday said anomalies over insurance coverage had meant reserve duties are limited to training only while Government, insurers and Police hammer out a solution.

Several Police sources said the Reserve Police played a full part in keeping law and order.

One said: "At the weekend they are putting out quite a number of people. They are very, very useful."

The Reserve officers also police Harbour Nights on Front Street on Wednesdays.

Asked if next week's festivities were in jeopardy Acting Mayor Bill Black said: "If they are not going to be there it is going to have an effect on us. I am hoping the regular Police will step in and assist."

This week Public Safety Minister David Burch told The Royal Gazette that his suggestion to claw back Policemen occupied in non-Policing duties - such as court duty and guard duty - had been shot down.

"That would help us greatly. I don't know what the numbers are but they are significant.

"If we were able claw them back and deploy them in operational policing then perhaps we would not hear the cry that the Police are undermanned.

"If one employed the Regiment in some of those roles which are traditionally carried out by militaries in most civilised countries you would release policemen from those sorts of duties.

"But from where I sit there is no real appetite on the part of the Police or the Governor to do that.

"I am extremely frustrated about that - all I can do about that, because it is operational policing, is talk about it.

"As much as people calling it whining, it's a reality of life. I asked I said to people 'I can fix this, let me' and we had a constitutional crisis just for asking. You cannot have it both ways."

A Government House spokesman said last night: "We consider it would not be appropriate to change the current arrangement."

Recently Sen. Burch called for Government to have operational control of Policing but that was rejected by the Governor - to whom the Police Commissioner reports directly

But Government controls the purse strings. Sen. Burch said training was "frozen" temporarily three months ago but has now been freed up. He said "I had concerns about overspending last year."

He said the budget had been overspent by 40 to 50 percent and he added: "Now they are under-budget as far as they have indicated."

Opposition Leader Michael Dunkley agreed with Sen. Burch's call to get Police off static guard duties and back into active Policing.

But he criticised Government for not doing more to keep force numbers up, after claiming the force had lost 40 officers between January and July this year.

And he said Government's excuse that the traditional recruiting grounds in Britain and the Caribbean weren't so receptive was no reason for letting numbers dwindle as he urged Government to look at other countries for experienced officers and to reassess the benefits package being offered.

Mr. Dunkley said officers were becoming dissolusioned partly due to the fact Police had not had a pay rise for two years and were working out of contract.

A source close to the Police told The Royal Gazette "It is two years now and people wonder why morale is an issue - this is not a way to recruit Bermudians to an organisation, I can tell you."

However this paper understands from a variety of sources that footdragging on the part of the Bermuda Police Association could be to blame for the stalled pay talks.

Mr. Dunkley also questioned how the axing of Community Beat Officers would help the Police build bridges at a time when they were finding it difficult to get witnesses to come forward for gun murders. He said the Community Beat Officers had been employed to get to know communities at a grass roots level and had been very successful in the Prospect area in particular.

"They had a number of challenges but cleaned it up before it got out of hand."

But he said the move to Community Action Teams would see Police reacting to incidents rather than preventing them as they go along.