Tourism Ministry Donates to Tourism Police

Today, the Tourism Policing Unit of the Belize Police Department was the recipient of a much needed donation courtesy of the Ministry of Tourism. Five motorcycles and a number of radios were handed over by Minister Manuel Heredia to Deputy O.C. of the Unit, Inspector Carla Gamboa. The equipment and vehicles, which are valued at over forty thousand dollars, will be distributed to several areas across the country, including San Pedro and Caye Caulker. News Five was there for the handing over.

Manuel Heredia Jr.

Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism

“It is an incentive to the police. The tourism industry is twenty-five percent of the GDP of this country and I believe that the tourism industry also needs to give back something also to the community, even though B.T.B. provides a lot of funding to pay for the salaries of the tourism police, likewise we believe that for crime to be prevented, they need to have the resources, they need to have the necessary equipment to be able to do the services that is needed. And that is why B.T.B., with a little more than forty thousand dollars, decided to invest this particular motorcycles and radios to five different destinations—if I am not mistaken—Belize City, Hopkins, Caye Caulker, San Pedro and Cayo. These are the five destinations that will be receiving these motorcycles and as we go along, I believe that we will continue to give more resources to the tourism police and to the police department on a whole.”

Carla Gamboa

Insp. Carla Gamboa, Deputy O.C., Tourism Police Unit

“As we know, the tourism police responsibility is very important and huge because we cover countrywide and we have the TPOs who work at the various destinations from north to south, east to west. These equipments will be very valuable to our unit because we are short of equipment and that will assist us to execute our job effectively. As for the radios, we all know that the unit has limited radios and we do not have the amount to each officer. So some of the radios will be used in the district for communication. So the donation we highly appreciate it because it will assist the unit very much in the execution of our duties.”

The equipments will be put into use as soon as they are insured and licensed.