National Security Minister Wayne Perinchief has urged police officers to “enforce the law with the powers they already have” to tackle Bermuda’s worsening violence.Mr Perinchief told the House of Assembly this morning that the “senseless” murders were continuing to threaten the “idyllic setting of paradise we call home”.He said it was his first opportunity to address the issue of national security from the front bench and he wanted to make it clear that the Country “can’t legislate” its way out of its current problems.Mr Perinchief highlighted the need for police to start using curfews and electronic tagging.Mr Perinchief said the lives of two young men had been “snuffed out” since the House rose on March 28.He said: “More families mourn losses that seem and are quite simply senseless.“Communities struggle to understand how the idyllic setting of this paradise we call home can be the site of such violence and manifested anger.”Mr Perinchief said the community was looking to Government for solutions and he had tried to “meet the need and desire for answers”.He said: “I have attempted to give voice to the feelings of many in the community and have put several concepts into the public domain to spur debate and to raise the level of awareness of the pressing need for such anti-social behaviour to be met with strong enforcement of the law.”But Mr Perinchief, who is Bermuda’s assistant police commissioner with 32 years of experience policing, said officers weren’t using all the powers at their disposal.He said: “In my meetings with the Commissioner of Police and the senior command of the Bermuda Police Service I have left them in no doubt that their focus must be on enforcing the law and using the tools provided to them by this Government, with the support of the members of this Honourable House.“Mr Speaker, Honourable Members will no doubt recall the raft of measures passed in 2009 which came directly from the police wish-list.“Measures like stop and search powers, enhanced security for licensed premises and the ability to disperse anti-social gatherings were speedily enacted. Mr Speaker, some of those powers remain to be used. I have urged the police to make use of all the powers at their disposal.”Mr Perinchief said it was wrong “to pretend that we can legislate ourselves out of this period of violence and gun crime”.He said: “Passing legislation is only one of the means by which to deal with these issues.”He went on to say that in full effect to the Bail Act 2005 and its provisions available to the police, funding would be made available to pay for the electronic tagging and monitoring of those persons arrested, with or without charge, in connection with firearms offences.Mr Perinchief said: “The Bail Act 2005 permits the police to prescribe the residence of a person, to impose a curfew, reporting restrictions and electronic monitoring all without the requirement to charge an individual.“These are significant powers and in the first instance they must be used to the fullest extent. If we are to give true meaning to the saying “we know who they are” then we must use the tools we have to deal with them. A fully utilised Bail Act will achieve that.”Mr Perinchief added that he would also commend “identical provisions” for consideration under the parole regime.He said: “This is significant because it is a matter of public record that the leadership of the gang culture in this country is now detained within Westgate. If we do not manage their eventual release we will have solved nothing.”Mr Perinchief said he also wants to see conditions such as a curfew or electric tagging imposed where on oath a senior officer satisfies a Magistrate that the subject is part of a violent or anti-social lifestyle.He said: “I know the guardians of constitutional freedoms will have their concerns. I will respect them; but wish for the community to understand that national security demands that we be prepared to re-examine the balance of freedoms versus restrictions.”Mr Perinchief added that other measures remained under consideration to “meet the challenge posed by this trend of violence”.