The Police would like more power to tackle all troublemakers who disrupt local communities instead of Government bringing in specific legislation making gang membership a crime.

Newly-appointed Assistant Commissioner Paul Wright said recommendations to tackle gang and anti-social behaviour were handed to Government in 2006 based on an analysis of the current situation and a forecast of the future.

These asked for new powers such as those granted to the UK Police in 2003 to disperse groups of troublemakers who gather in public and intimidate local residents.

The Police would also like to see changes to the Liquor Licensing Act giving more power to close premises that allow bad behaviour to flourish, and to impose heavier fines.

Premier Ewart Brown revealed earlier this month that Government is hoping to introduce a raft of new measures, including making gang membership a criminal offence. Dr. Brown said under that law, the Police could use tactics to intentionally disrupt the rhythm of gangs that are attracting children as young as 12.

Mr. Wright agrees with the aims but yesterday cast doubt on the wisdom of specifically targeting gang members.

"The Cayman Islands have specific anti-gang legislation that was passed in 2005, but what the Cayman Islands won't tell you is they've never prosecuted anyone under that," he said.

"Anti-gang legislation creates an extra evidential layer. You don't only have to prove that someone's committed an offence but done it as a member of a broader group. That can make it more difficult."

Mr. Wright said this is not so difficult in the United States where there are formally-constituted gangs with specific membership criteria and evidence they are members such as their dress and the tattoos that they wear.

"But in Bermuda right now we've had reports of 17 established gangs; people move between those groups from one to the other. We've got at least 350 people in 17 groups on the Island.

"Our approach is more behaviour specific than gang specific. The former creates an offence of belonging to that organisation. If it's behaviour specific it's all about what they are doing. Are they damaging property, are they injuring people, are they coke dealing, are they involved in criminal conspiracies?"

Therefore, he said, the Police recommend law changes geared towards targeting the relatively small number of people they've identified as being responsible for most of Bermuda's crime whether they're gang members or not.

"The Bermuda Police Service has recommended that we target people not because of what they look like, who they associate with, the neighbourhoods they hang around in and or how they dress, but on what they do," explained Mr. Wright who briefed the Premier and his Cabinet on the issue earlier this month.

"This Government takes it very seriously. We may have a difference of opinion on whether it should be gang specific or behaviour specific but we're very firmly in agreement that Police activity needs to be high profile, it needs to disrupt their rhythm."

Mr. Wright said powers granted by law in 2005 to allow officers to stop and search people in anticipation of violence have been a great help. These allow the Police to stop and search people suspected of carrying weapons with authorisation from a senior officer. This has been used 30 times in the first six months of this year double the same period last year.

In future, he said, the Police would like more power to address what he described as "simple quality of life issues" such as "giving the Police the power to deal with noise complaints at night without someone having to come out of their house and identify that they're the person that called. The powers to disperse people from areas where residents have felt intimidated, alarmed or harassed."–However, he stressed that the difference of opinion with Government over whether new legislation should be gang or behaviour specific "doesn't put us in a conflicting position with where our priorities are in enforcing the laws in the Country. We've had an extraordinary amount of open dialogue with several Ministries. We've been given a lot so far and we've asked for more."