Michael DeSilva has revealed how he got directly involved in attempts to calm gang violence just days after being sworn in as Police Commissioner.

The chief of Bermuda Police Service made himself constantly available to third party intermediary Carlton Simmons, who was talking to gang members about how to bring about peace in the wake of a flurry of shootings in December.

Not a single shot was fired for 14 days over Christmas while the talks involving Parkside and 42nd Street went on.

Mr. DeSilva and Mr. Simmons spoke repeatedly during the festive period — but the Commissioner said that level of involvement on his part could not be sustained.

"It was taking up too much time. It's not the Commissioner's role to get involved to that operational level," he said. "That was right at the start. I had to do it myself because I hit the ground running.

"On December 16, three people were shot within 24 hours. I had to take a very visible leadership role and kick-start the initiative. A month later, we had our gang strategy in place."

Since being sworn in as Commissioner on December 16, Mr. DeSilva has had to contend with five gun murders and scores of firearms incidents connected to gang rivalries.

The Commissioner told The Royal Gazette: "The gang issue is the single most complex issue that this country has ever seen, without a doubt, next to the issue of racism.

"This is up there in terms of social complexity. This stretches across the entire community."

He said his priority for Bermuda Police Service since taking charge had been enforcement. "The Police Service, and quite rightly in my view, is in high enforcement mode right now," he said. "We have got Police officers on the streets 24/7 in droves. I'm reluctant to give an exact number but there has to be a 15 percent increase in the number of officers on the streets.

"It's not possible for us to have a lot of problem-solving dialogue with gang members until we see a reduction in crime. That's what other agencies are for."

Mr. DeSilva added: "We are locking up more people now than in the history of our Service. We are on the street so much that traffic collisions have been driven right down. All of crime has gone down, except violent crime."

But he acknowledged that enforcement alone would not solve the gang issue. "It isn't solving it in any other city in the headlines, including Chicago, Boston and New York."

He said churches, Government-led social assistance programmes and charities could do much to help.

"Although we have had a lot of success over the last few months in overall raising the public's awareness of gang issues, I'm still a bit concerned that there is still a reliance on the Police to solve the problem through enforcement. "Every chance I get and every chance the [Public Safety] Minister gets, we remind the public that this requires an holistic approach that's got a diversion component, an enforcement component and a rehabilitation component."

The Commissioner said part of the current strategy was to teach officers it was their job to tackle gang crime — whichever division they were in.

"Our Road Policing Unit is not just there to book people for speeding," he said. "That's one thing they do. They are there to provide reassurance, to check vehicles, to check people and, if they are one of our prolific offenders, to determine if they should be searched for weapons.

"Gone are the days when Police have an over-specialisation in one aspect of law enforcement."

Mr. DeSilva said he had read about but not yet formed a view on whether Bermuda could benefit from Operation Ceasefire — the youth gun violence intervention strategy first implemented in Boston, which the Opposition wants to see here.

"We are not doing anything too dissimilar to what's being done and it's a pretty standard method that's been adopted across the board. It's very similar to what I have seen in Birmingham [in the UK] and New York."

The Commissioner spoke to this newspaper before the gun murder last week of 40-year-old George Lynch, in Hamilton Parish. At that stage, there had not been a shooting since April 5 and Mr. DeSilva said there were a "host of reasons" for the apparent calm.

"Some of the more violent offenders are in custody so they are not able to commit the crimes," he said. "And the volume of [Police] patrols makes it more difficult for gang members to plan operations."

He said the Island needed to get to the heart of the problem and look seriously at issues such as poverty, homelessness and other economic factors.

"These guys aren't gang members for a single reason, like they don't have a father," said Mr. DeSilva, adding that there were about 300 people known to Police as having a gang association. "I think in terms of active engagement, it's far less than that," he said. "We have got about 100 people on the prolific offenders list and about a third of those are gang members."