More police officers will be trained to carry firearms, according to the Bermuda Police Service's pledges for the coming year.With guns, gangs, drugs and violence continuing as the force's four key priorities, greater CCTV surveillance and an enhanced partnership with gang-fighting agencies are among the force's plans in coming years.Unveiling the service's Strategic Plan for 2012 to 2015, Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva called the checklist “ambitious”, but said it was necessarily so.“Bermuda remains in a state of economic recession, the pressures of which could fuel increases in burglaries, robberies, vehicle thefts, fraud and other acquisitive crimes.“Government funding is limited and is being stretched across a broad spectrum of competing demands. And the Police Service — like every Government department — is contending with financial, operational and organisational challenges.”Producing the three-year plan was itself one the recommendations made earlier this year by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC).And, in its Annual Policing Plan, Bermuda Police further vowed to employ intelligence and tip-offs against gun, drug and gang crime, and to target perpetrators of serious crimes with DNA profiling.The force's yearly list of goals, first launched in January 2010, is now linked to the financial year, and the latest report reflects plans moving forward from April of this year.The two strategy documents were made public yesterday through the service's website [see below].Short-term, police patrols will be used to “deny criminals use of the Island's roads”, while over the next three years, surveillance upgrades could include number plate recognition and the ShotSpotter system to speed up gun crime deterrence.An information and intelligence-based Covert Policing Strategy — recently alluded to by Assistant Commissioner David Mirfield — is also among long-term goals.In several nods to the effects of the economic downturn, a rise in burglaries is anticipated. Meanwhile, among the three-year plan's more mundane items, a Collision Policy was mentioned, to avoid police attending certain non-injury road accidents.Bermuda Police are looking into forming a single emergency centre for 911 calls by 2015, and getting a new Records Management System automated and compatible with anticipated Public Access to Information (PATI) legislationMany of the plan's points echo recommendations presented in March by the HMIC report, which called on the force to modernise. Carrying on the HMIC's call for more local recruits, Bermuda Police also committed to diversify staff.Describing the latest annual plan as a “bite sized activity list”, the document adds: “It also helps the public know what to expect from us and to monitor our performance against what we say we are going to do.”Useful website: www.bps.bm.