The Governor, who has direct responsibility for the Police, the Premier, whose Government provides the funding for the Police, and the Commissioner, who is responsible for its operations, met yesterday to discuss strategies for dealing with the latest outbreak of violent crime.

That's healthy, but there is a real risk that the current crisis, if that is the word for it, will degenerate into a political blame game where no one is willing to take any responsibility for those aspects of crime prevention and detection that they can actually do something about.

Indeed, it is beginning to seem all too likely that the Island is now beginning to fall into the usual cycle that follows every outbreak of serious and violent crime.

That is to say: A violent crime is committed, resulting in deaths or serious injuries. There is an immediate outpouring of anger, grief and calls for something, anything, to be done.

Graffiti is painted on memorial banners. Facebook pages are created. The victims of the crimes are remembered as fundamentally good people, their sins (and we are all sinners) washed away.

Everyone becomes an instant "expert" – and newspaper editorial writers are as guilty as anyone else – with their ideas on what should be done.

The Government promises a crackdown. Large numbers of Police are thrown into the mix, very often arrests are made while social experts talk about gangs and their causes.

After a few weeks, a new problem arises and gradually the incident is forgotten, except by the families and friends of the victim, some of whom may be plotting revenge and the next round of the vendetta.

However, it is worth noting that even against the backdrop of the worst global recession in 70 years, crime, not the economy, was the biggest concern among Bermuda residents in a recent poll conducted for this newspaper, and that the concern was deepest among black residents, who are most likely to be the victims.

That shows that the vast majority of people are clamouring for real solutions to the problem.

Premier Dr. Ewart Brown called yesterday for a "paradigm shift" in deployment of Police by the use of regular foot patrols in trouble spots and neighbourhoods.

That sounds good on the surface, although it might also be seen as a tactical, kneejerk response to the weekend's crimes. Whether it is viable when there may be as many as 20 trouble spots across the Island remains to be seen.

This newspaper still believes that the "broken window" approach to policing, as exemplified in New York City under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and then-Commissioner Melvin Bratton, remains the soundest approach to policing for Bermuda.

But it is only half of the solution. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair once talked about being "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime".

If the Police and the courts have the role of being tough on crime, only the Government can realistically deal with the causes of crime, and only then with the support of the community.

Less than 12 months ago, the Cabinet announced a series of initiatives after the last outbreak of violent crime. Few, apart from increased funding for the Mirrors programme and drug rehabilitation, appear to have progressed much since then.

Rather than coming up with new operational prescriptions for the Police (who have had a lot of success in making arrests and getting convictions recently), it might be best to concentrate on bringing those ideas into action.