The Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) yesterday repeated a campaign promise of tough action to curb lawlessness in the community.

And it accused the Government of not putting enough resources into community policing.

Public Safety Minister Terry Lister denies the allegations and says that the fact that serious crime is down shows that Government policies are working.

"Increases are in such crimes as bike thefts but violent crime is down," he said referring to official statistics.

Mr. Lister added that the Opposition should not be putting out the "political spin" that serious crime was on the increase when the opposite was true.

"When they do that they ignore the facts. And its important for the people of Bermuda to have the facts and move on."

Pembroke candidates Erwin Adderley and Leonard Santucci called a press conference to stress their party's support for community policing which they said involved a visible police presence in every community, and officers on the beat who are known to the community and easily accessible.

"Community policing, in the view of the United Bermuda Party, is that a police officer is most effective when they are stationed in the community, walking the beat, building a positive relationship with the people and identifying the problems before they get out of hand," Mr. Adderley said.

"The concept of community beat officers has been implemented by the Bermuda Police Service, but the resources to make that initiative effective have not been fully committed."

The pair promised that neighbourhoods will be safer if the UBP forms the next Government.

While acknowledging that official statistics indicated a decline in crime, they said that crime and drug dealing had in fact increased since 1998 when the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) came into power.

"It appears that those who aspire to criminal behaviour have found friends in high places," said Rev Santucci, the UBP candidate for district 17 or Pembroke Central.

Asked to elaborate, he said: "I don't think that the criminals are concerned about being detected as they should be. It is incumbent on the government to provide leadership."

"The Opposition just doesn't understand the concept of community policing and alternatives to incarceration, Mr. Lister replied.

"To start with they continue to desire to return to the days of the parish constable.

"They believe in that role in which the parish constable was focused solely on attempting to arrest people and to lock them up.

"That leads to the revolving gate of the prisons.

"We have an alternative to incarceration programme and a vital part of that programme is the Community Beat Officer (CBO)."

Responsible for "being aware of what is going on and working with the residents of the area to find solutions to those problems," the CBO did not exist prior to 1998, he continued.

"There had been a parish constable but that stopped somewhere in the early 90s and the whole thing was gone.

"We brought in CBOs. Pre `98 nothing existed. There were no parish constable and there were no CBOs."

On the UBPs' concerns about resource allocation, Mr. Lister said that the money spent on the CBO programme had increased every year.

"It continues to rise all the time.

"While there are some who say they don't see enough policemen walking the beat, whether that's true or not we have redeployed police officers in ways that keep crime down, and crime is in fact down," the Minister said.

Asked whether the Police Commissioner requested more money he said: "The Police Commissioner has been requesting more money for fighting white collar crime and not street level crime.

"The Commissioner has not come to me seeking resources for CBOs, drug interdiction and all those things and getting a `no'".

Asked for an indication that the programme was working he pointed to concerns about crime in the St. George's area which surfaced a year ago.

"The CBOs were asked to get involved with the young boys out there. The Corporation and parents were invited to do the same. Some of the young boys were hired by the Corporation but one of them is in prison."

He added: "There are people who potentially will be criminals but not the whole group. There are those who believed that there were 14 or 15 young men in St. George's who needed to be incarcerated.

"Now a year later we've got a different situation. I believe strongly in the CBO programme because I believe in rebuilding peoples' lives."

And he recounted a story of a man who took up drugs when he went to prison.

"I think we have to be very careful about throwing young men in prison," he said.

And he said he was pleased about the apprehension rate of people accused of committing major crime.

"Every time there's a crime which is in the news, the people are caught within a few days."