Pc Arthur Dill would never have dreamed of having his face tattooed when he was a teenager.

But some of the young people he encounters as a community action officer are a different ball game.

“They don’t think very far into the future,” he said. “They don’t think about ten years from now when they have to apply for a job and they have gang tattoos or obscenities on their face or neck.”

This concern led him to join Horizons, a mentoring programme organised by the Bermuda Education Network, in partnership with Prospect Primary and Northlands Primary.

Mentors meet once a month with the 36 students involved. All of them are between the ages of seven and nine.

Six officers from Bermuda Police Service’s Central Community Action Team have signed up.

Pc Krishna Singh, 47, said it was a chance to show that police officers were also human beings.

“In this department, we are highly involved with the schools,” he said. “We see so many things happen in schools. There is a lot of negative peer pressure.

“As the years go by, the kids we see involved with drugs are younger and younger. With the internet and cell phones, we see a lot more cyber bullying.”

The children are also vulnerable because work commitments prevent many of their parents from being there when they get home after school, he added.

“Kids need mentors to guide them along,” said Pc Singh. “I grew up in Trinidad and have lived in Bermuda for 30 years. I lived with my grandparents and my cousins, aunts and uncles were always nearby.

“Sometimes my parents weren’t around but I always had other family members to look out for me. Nowadays, I don’t think that’s happening so much in Bermuda. Everyone is busy.”

The group first got together in February as part of the Bermuda National Trust’s annual nature walk around Spittal Pond. This month’s activity was rained out but there are plans to hunt for treasure using a GPS system in April.

Future plans include platform diving, snorkelling and horseback riding.

“Studies show that mentoring has a positive effect on the likelihood that a young person will avoid negative behaviours and participate successfully in school and community life,” said BEN’s programming director, Tracy Astwood. “We felt this team would make great expedition mentors.

“Their goal of encouraging positive change in Bermuda neighbourhoods and developing relationships with people in those communities goes hand-in-hand with what we are trying to accomplish.”

Pc Derek Simmons’s group was not terribly impressed that he was a police officer.

“The children said, ‘police officers just lock people up’,” he said. “We hear parents say all the time to their children, ‘here come the police. You better behave or they’ll lock you up’. We wanted to show the children the lighter side of policing.”

By the end of the day, the children who had expressed misgivings about the Police were saying that they wanted to join the service, Pc Simmons said, adding: “That was very satisfying.”

Sergeant Shakisha Minors said the boys in her group wanted to climb on everything, while the girls were curious to learn about her. “We got them to behave but also gave them some freedom in the great outdoors,” she said. “They had fun. They asked questions and had a good time.”

The 32-year-old officer runs a gang-resistance programme in schools. She said the mentoring programme gave the Police an opportunity to reach more children.

“Wherever we can fill in I am more than happy,” she said. “This generation will be taking care of us when we are older and we need to put the investment into them now.”

Pc Singh said he loved the programme because BEN set everything up ahead of time so that the mentors could “just have to show up and have fun with the kids”.

Ms Astwood said the idea was for the mentors to help the children fulfil their potential and discover their strengths. “The police mentors understand they are not meant to replace a parent, guardian or teacher,” she said. “They are not the disciplinarians or decision-makers for these children. Instead, they are in place to echo the positive values and lessons that their parents, guardians and teachers are already teaching them.

“But most importantly, our police mentors are part of a team of caring adults and the kids can see that.”

Despite the officers’ commitment, the charity needs volunteers, Ms Astwood said.

“We are looking for volunteer support to provide after-school programmes in sporting activities like martial arts, field hockey, or other sports,” she said. “We are also looking for mentors who are healthcare professionals for our healthcare springboard, which is a high school career guidance programme.”

For more information, call Ms Astwood at 703-7935 or e-mail tracy.astwood@ben.bm