"Community policing is not a soft option. Community policing is not shaking hands and kissing babies."

So says the Bermuda Police Service's Community Beat Office's Chief Inspector Michael DeSilva whose work involves everything from setting up Neighbourhood Watches to taking part in stakeouts to catching drug dealers, beggars and burglars.

This summer the unit - first set up in June, 2002 - will expand after some significant successes in curbing crime and anti-social behaviour.

However Chief Inspector DeSilva is the first to admit there is a huge amount of public frustration about a perceived lack of Police action with street drug dealers the bane of many a neighbourhood.

"What we get predominately are residents wanting Police to move people on or make arrests," Chief Inspector DeSilva said.

"A classic example is Ord Road where the residents are one of the most frustrated groups I have ever encountered - and rightly so - because they have a long-standing problem that has reduced the quality of their lives significantly.

"Their perception is Police are not doing anything about the problem. In reality nothing could be further from the truth.

"Our Police Support Unit targets Ord Road on a daily basis, this office targets Ord Road on a regular basis. There's been a lot of people arrested for selling drugs." But such small-time dealers would normally be charged and bailed and could be back on Ord Road within hours of their arrest.

"It could be four months before we get them in court because of the time it takes to analyse the drug.

"So residents see the same guy who was selling drugs today back there tomorrow. Their perception is once again the Police have failed to solve the problem.

"We have done our part with the Department of Prosecutions saying there has got to be a different way."

Other jurisdictions, including the Caribbean and the UK, allow suspects with small quantities to plead guilty before the drug is analysed. Instead it is simply weighed after a visual assessment of what it is likely to be.

"For every concerned citizen group who calls us in absolute frustration, there are countless others like that. It's a seasonal problem which will last all summer every night.

"There are dozens of pockets like Ord Road and we don't have the resources to respond in the way residents want."

There are nine Community Beat Officers (CBOs) but the department also comprises liaison officers in schools, the Outward Bound unit and the animal protection office.

By July the department will expand to 15 CBOs.

For a while CBOs were allocated their own parish but for many operations it is too dangerous to go alone so now the officers are split into east, west and central teams.

Loitering males are an age-old problem without legal remedy unless it can be proven they have trespassed against private property.

"You can't be arrested for standing on a street corner," said Chief Inspector DeSilva. "People have done that for hundreds of years. It's a cultural thing."

Public drinking and swearing cannot be prosecuted unless the Police witness it or residents come forward with evidence. Even if they do, it may only yield minor prosecutions.

The Royal Gazette spoke to business owner Frank Arnold of Arnold's Supermarket who said gangs of up to 20 constantly hung around his Somerset shop drinking, selling drugs and dropping trash despite numerous `no loitering' signs and calls for them to move.

He says he has been calling Police for months demanding action and points out the loiterers are on private property.

Police have just recently pledged to deal with the problem said Mr. Arnold, but Chief Inspector DeSilva said business owners on that stretch of Somerset Road needed to be aware of their own responsibilities.

"You have two supermarkets, a liquor store, a restaurant and a filling station and they will probably all serve the same people that are hanging out who they want the Police to do something about.

"They will come to the liquor store which will sell them a single beer and then the owner will complain to Police that these people are hanging out.

"They will go to the supermarket and buy sodas and chips and throw the trash on the ground, the owners will then complain to the Police.

"Part of the problem is the stores are helping them commit the very thing they have an issue with," Chief Inspector DeSilva explained.

"It's not a criticism, I am trying to offer some perspective that a lot of these long-standing problems are long standing because everyone tolerates them - not just the Police."

Mr. Arnold told The Royal Gazette he did indeed sell goods to the people he wanted removed but justified on the grounds they would only buy it elsewhere.

He said he wanted prosecutions for loitering as the men put off other customers.

For Chief Inspector DeSilva niggling neighbourhood issues are a big part of his busy team's work. The unit was set up to deal with issues often lost in the priority list of stretched operational officers. Instead CBOs deal with quality of life issues such as drug problems, feuding neighbours and speeding in neighbourhoods.

Enforcement is not always the answer said Chief Inspector DeSilva. Designing out crime by removing secluded areas for illicit activity is a big help.

"If a neighbourhood is dark then light it up, if it is not well travelled put a road through it, if there's a grove of trees to hide drugs in let's take them down."

The Alexandra Road area in Prospect, Devonshire is a shining example of what can be done in an area which was densely populated but its inhabitants socially distanced from each other.

It was a haven for kids playing load music while the area was also used for stripping stolen bikes and drug use.

A neighbourhood clean-up removed the bike stash and drug den and helped foster community cohesiveness.

Getting people to know each other also reduces anonymity and causes people to tone down their behaviour.

The area provided Chief Inspector DeSilva with his most rewarding moment in the CBO job - the Community Day at Alexandra Road. "That day went off exactly they way I had always wanted since 2002. With one Police officer's effort we got an entire community - I am talking hundreds of people - to take a day out of their lives and clean up their neighbourhood.

"The whole day didn't cost anything, they fixed some geographical problems to reduce anti-social behaviour, they got to meet one another and spent a day in a `let's pull together' atmosphere."

In Cedar Park where kids from age eight up until their teens gather in the school field on weekend nights, Police have used the Children's Act to round up children still out after the midnight hour and return them home.

On several occasions the children are taken into protective custody until their parents collect them.

"It's been an eye opener, I was formerly under the impression that when you saw kids hanging out it was because the parents didn't care.

"Overwhelmingly I am finding the parents are not bad parents," Chief Inspector DeSilva said. "But the children, because of their associations or issues, are involved in anti-social behaviour or crime are finding ways to trick the parent to escape from the house.

"On more than one occasion we have called a parent who is blown away that we have their child because they are convinced their child is asleep in the bedroom.

"We actually have to say `Ma'am please go to your child's bedroom and tell me if she is there'. It's unreal."

Children as young as 12 have been caught smoking cannabis in the wee hours, said Chief Inspector DeSilva recalling a raid on an abandoned car. Police come across the latch-key children who are living by their own rules. "When that happens we have to get Family Services involved."

City dwellers and businesses have their own set of problems. They are sick of carwashers, beggars and congregating children but also feel they are complaining into a vacuum.

"But the reality is you cannot go to prison for washing a car. Continually arresting people for low-level summary offences does not make them disappear."

Carwashers have been cordoned off in controlled areas but beggars still roam, buoyed by a recent court ruling which ruled prosecutors must establish begging was a chosen lifestyle choice, rather than a one-off event. That particular landmark case was lost against Eugene (Jinx) Darrell.

Links are being fostered with nightclubs to improve security and stop weapons being brought in. But the essence of the life of a CBO is assessing the best option to get the best long-term results.

Sometimes it involves arrest and prison terms, sometimes it's about changing the environment so crime cannot thrive, said Chief Inspector DeSilva.

"Community Policing is analysing what is causing a problem and finding the best long-term solution."