Shadow Public Safety Minister Michael Scott has urged police to adopt totally different approach to crime in order to stem the flow of murder and gang violence.And he warned that, unless a “preventive” approach is taken by police, innocent people risked becoming the victims of gun violence.Speaking during the Ministry of Public Safety Budget debate in the House of Assembly yesterday, the Progressive Labour Party representative for Sandys repeatedly referred to the grim statistic that 23 murders have been committed on the Island since 2008.He was critical of Government for allocating funds to police divisions that investigated crimes and gathered evidence “ex post facto” rather than spending money on preventive initiatives such as putting more officers on the streets.Mr Scott also suggested that a new Ministry could be set up specifically to target serious crime and added that police launch more sting operations similar to Operation Cleansweep — a 1997 undercover initiative to break up drug dealing on the Island.“We have had some troubling developments in that, when tit-for-tat shootings don’t pan out successfully, family members become targeted,” Mr Scott said.“I can’t emphasise the need for stopping this madness in our country. That’s 23 murders, 23 families that have been impacted, 23 victims, and we ask the question, where are we going? Do the police assume that, at the 23rd death in our country, all the gangsters have killed off one another?“I don’t think it is much cause for comfort — business as usual is not good enough when we have criminals prepared to kill family members.“I am not seeking to go off to some fantasy land but the focus of the PLP would have been prevention and control.”Claiming that the upsurge in violent crime was “the single most important change in our lives”, Mr Scott said more “feet on the ground” were needed to give the public confidence that crime was being tackled.The Shadow Minister pointed out that the US totally revamped its security strategies following the 9/11 terrorist strikes and even set up a new Department of Homeland Security.“It is that kind of response that I am advocating,” Mr Scott said. “But expenditures are weighted to after the crime has been committed. I see no focus on preventive policing or control.“We can’t just lay in the tide and have this approach and expect to see deaths and gun crimes reduced. They will take over the entire Country and we will all be the victims unless we act. Prevention is better than a pound of cure.”Mr Scott said Operation Cleansweep could be used as a model for further crime prevention operations.“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a sting operation that stopped these crimes taking place in the first place — and the trauma that follows,” he said.“Operation Cleansweep was an operation that set out to prevent crime, so it’s in the matrix — we have done it, we have had secret investigations that have had the objective of preventing offences.”Accusing the police of “neglecting prevention”, Mr Scott concluded: “I don’t want us to go down a road which is unchartered — which is reactive — because it may take us to a place where we may never recover.“We don’t want the crime profile of other countries — this is not the Bermuda that we love or have grown accustomed to and we must pursue deployments that prevent and control.”Responding to the criticism, Public Safety Minister Michael Dunkley said that it was “patently untrue” that officers were being taken off the streets and that the Budget had set aside funds for “30 new hires”.He dismissed the suggestion of a new Ministry as “over the top” and pointed out that police were conducting preventive sting operations such as Operation Nightlight.