Tuesday’s daylight murder of Janae Minors brings to seven the number of violent deaths this year. Of the seven deaths, five involved firearms.

If this trend continues, Bermuda is on track to meet or exceed the nine murders recorded in 2024.

While the number of murders can vary from one year to another, nine people have been killed in three of the five years between 2020 and 2024.

This is unacceptable.

Since 2020, 46 people have been murdered, with the vast majority being shot to death.

That is an average of 7.8 murders a year, which gives Bermuda a murder rate of 12 people per 100,000 population.

That is far from the worst in the world — Jamaica has a murder rate of almost 50 per 100,000 people — but it is more than double the 5.8 rate of the gun-ridden United States, Canada’s rate of 2 and Britain, which has a murder rate of 1.1.

This is not where Bermuda should be. It should not have a murder rate that is double the US rate, six times higher than Canada’s and almost 12 times higher than Britain’s.

The human cost to the families and friends of these people is incalculable. People have lost their children, parents, brothers and sisters, and friends.

Ms Minors left two teenagers who will be marked by the murder of their mother for the rest of their lives.

Her death and the double shooting in August of Natrae Eversley, 23, and Nakai Robinson, 18, as well as other shooting incidents around the island, cause fear and uncertainty for the people who live and work around Court Street, and in other areas where there has been violent crime in recent months.

People should be able to go about their business without fear. That is the absolute minimum that people should expect from their government and for their tax dollars.

Much of the gun crime is connected to gangs. Indeed, Darrin Simons, the Commissioner of Police, stated on Wednesday that the Court Street shootings took place in an area where gang activity is well known.

Mr Simons said there are approximately 11 gangs with about 200 individuals directly involved with them.

That begs the question of why it is apparently so difficult to get a grip on the gangs. It cannot be that hard for a community of 65,000 people to stop the activities of 200, or for a police service of almost 400 to do the same.

The Government finally seems to have gotten the message, with the convening of two Governor’s Council meetings in recent months.

To be sure, dealing with crime is complicated because, while the Government holds the purse strings for law enforcement, can fund community work and can pass legislation, operational control of the police is independent and handled by the Governor. While there are sound reasons for this, it can hamper attempts to tackle the problem.

The meetings of the Governor’s Council are welcome if they mean everyone is on the same page. But what is lacking is a sharp focus on dealing with the problem.

The Government has stated that the police may have whatever resources they need, yet Mr Simons says he is 40 officers short of his budgeted complement.

How can this be?

The failure to fill these jobs may be owing to a desire to recruit locally, but if so, this is misguided. If there are insufficient local recruits, the police need to get in the best overseas officers they can find. This is no time for business as usual.

Similarly, delays in getting CCTV operating on Court Street — after years of promises — is inexcusable. The engineering may be complex, just as recruiting is, but where there are roadblocks, they need to be overcome.

Talk about drones and facial recognition equipment is all very well, but the authorities need to deploy the equipment and tactics they have now before they start looking at shiny new toys. Getting fully functioning CCTV and speed cameras in place would be a start.

Similarly, the violence reduction strategy tabled in the House of Assembly last week looks good on paper. It is correct that gang violence is not simply a police problem, but its causes are deep-rooted.

But too many of these plans and strategies come across as well-meaning talk as a substitute for action.

More than a decade ago, the One Bermuda Alliance government looked at a programme called Operation Ceasefire that had had remarkable success in Boston and other US towns and cities. The programme, which was the creation of American professor David Kennedy, was initiated in a limited way but was effectively abandoned by the Progressive Labour Party government in 2017.

Whether that was right or not is debatable, but what is inarguable is that the existing policies are failing.

There is a feeling in Bermuda that disorder is on the rise. Endemic speeding, aggressive begging and pervasive gang activity all give rise to a sense of insecurity. Chronic delays in the courts make it worse, as do failures to convict.

Some of the proposals of new Opposition leader Robert King are worth looking at, rather than dismissing them because they come from “the wrong team”.

Bermuda does indeed need an increased police presence which enforces loitering and traffic laws, carries out stops-and-searches and allows parish constables to do their jobs.

Fixing the customs dock at St George’s to stop the importation of illegal weapons is a no-brainer.

Mr Simons has suggested he does not need a significant increase in police officers than the budgeted number, but has also stated in the past that the police are overwhelmed by the number of open cases.

Both things cannot be true.

The commissioner should be less modest in his budget requests – an active police presence would make the public feel more secure instantly. There are longer-term issues that also need to be solved, but what is needed now is action.