Hard on the heels of the brazen barber shop murder on Saturday, Senators delved into the realms of organised crime through gang violence yesterday after 18 adjournments.Members of the Upper House debated the Report of the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on the causes of violent crime and gun violence in Bermuda.The wide-ranging, 101-page report was produced following a series of 45 presentations from community stakeholders, including various Government organisations, non-government organisations and private individuals.The ‘take note” motion was first issued in December by Opposition Senator Michael Dunkley who said a three pronged approach to tackling crime must be adopted, tackling the front end, the front line and the back end of the problem.Leading the debate he said: “Clearly the Bermuda Police Service are the front line of the fight against crime. Their job is critical an always in the public eye.“We cannot handcuff the police. We must provide them the budget necessary to allow them to protect the community.”Mr Dunkley noted the Good Governance legislation that was approved by the Senate earlier in the day, saying that similar efforts should be made to ensure police do not give in to temptation.“There’s a lot of money in the selling of illegal drugs,” he said. “Good people are often tempted by a quick buck so we must have adequate protection in place to prevent such temptation.”He praised the police service’s hard work, but suggested a review of the Police Complaints Authority to ensure that members of the public feel confident that any complaints that do arise are properly dealt with.Noting that police have thousands of outstanding fines and warrants, he supported the idea of regularly publishing a list of outstanding matters.“I believe if you do something as simple as publish warrants and fines it will spur people do deal with it,” he said. “I wouldn’t want my name in the paper, so I would try to clear it up.“This is a simple change that I think we can make and can be done very quickly.”Mr Dunkley also said that Government must look at front end issues, such as the deterioration of the family unit, education and the economy to prevent people from making the wrong choices.“This is where the problem start and this is where we have failed on too many occasions,” he said.He said he supported the creation of a National Plan to deal with crime in a unified manner.“The sooner movement is taken, the better it will be. Action must be taken quickly or the front line entities will have to continue to fight fires as they happen.”While he said bringing Operation Ceasefire to Bermuda could make a difference, he said it cannot be implemented in a piecemeal fashion to have the desired effect.Legislatively, he said: “I’m not in favour of specific anti-gang legislation. I favour targeting gang activities and behaviour.”Shadow Minister of National Security Senator Jonathan Smith, took issue with the “ongoing delays” in the actual debate of the report. “But it’s for someone else to explain why it got carried over 18 times,” he said.“Whether we like it or not we can sit round here and dance around the issue but in the eyes of the public this is a political issue, and the public are looking for leadership on tackling the issues when it comes to gun and gang violence.”The former Commissioner of Police noted that Government has put up $200 million in funding for the Bermuda Police Service over the last three years. And he said “there’s no nice language to say gangs in Bermuda are criminal enterprises at work” that exist solely to make cash money.“In order to make money they have to commit crime, and there’s a lot of money to be made,” he said. “There are members who have been overseas to the United States to undergo gang training, some even go abroad to engage in firearms practice.“They exist as criminal enterprises and rely upon criminal conspirators in the US, the UK, the Caribbean in the importation of both guns and drugs, so this is pretty serious stuff.“Over the years we’ve dealt with threats to kill senior police officers on the part of gangs, this Senator included, myself and several of my colleagues have been on a hit list to be killed. It was on the wall, the Curving Avenue Crew also known as White Wall had it and our names were there,” said Senator Smith, who was Commissioner of Police for five years up to 2005. The hit list was reported in 2004.“Let’s not underestimate just how intensive this problem is because there have been cross-jurisdictional murders that have taken place as well due to associations in Bermuda who have called the shots in some cases. This is far more than just a localised issue with us, it’s complex and deeply involved with conspirators both here and overseas,” he said.“And it’s costing the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars so this is serious business. All this information is out there yet at the same time this Government is being accused of not having a plan.”But there was a general consensus across the floor on the social impact of gang violence and gun crime in Bermuda, and the toll it’s taking on the community.