Private investors hope to deploy a close-circuit television system in the Cambridge Road-area of Somerset in a bid to combat drug activity and anti-social behaviour.

The measure comes after three months of discussions about suspicious activity and Police said it will help prosecute criminals.

Sandys Community Beat Officer P.c. Jonathan Siddall said: ?These measures indicate a new level of cooperation between community partners to eradicate offences which clearly lower the country?s standards.

?Police will not tolerate the increasing gang culture that?s poisoning the close-knit communities of Bermuda?s parishes.?

Gang culture lowers the quality of life in neighbourhoods despite the Island being one of the most affluent islands in the region, P.c. Siddall added.

Concerned community representative Phillip Barnett said?The community needs to understand the only way these problems will be solved is by a joint effort.

?We hold the Police accountable but we also join together.?

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The local investors, which include Cambridge Beaches, Nine Beaches, the Gosling Group of Companies and concerned residents, have long opposed the rise in alleged illegal activity along Cambridge Road. Bermudian security firm International Security and Fire Limited submitted a site survey over the weekend which proposed a plan to monitor and record activities along Cambridge Road, often considered a drug area.

And as part of a long-term solution, Police removed suspected gang ?tags? in the area which included red bandannas and the spray-painted word ?Bloodz? along an electric light pole. P.c. Siddall said: ?Tagging is a street name for graffiti or the marking of territories, which identifies areas as belonging to one particular group.

?Unfortunately the gang image has been romanticised and some youth want to attach themselves to that culture instead of concentrating on their own.?

He also said that tagging and other anti-social behaviour ?is having a negative impact on the lives of everyday citizens who are seeing their neighbourhood being turned, by a small minority, into a replica of the inner city areas of New York City and Los Angeles.

?This culture and these activities encourage violence, drug dealing and the exploitation of women.?