Hattieville Police Receive Donations from Silent Santa
While police have their hands full, they did take time today to receive a small but thoughtful contribution that will be used for elderly residents in the Hattieville community. This morning, a charitable group calling itself Silent Santa presented officers with three beach cruiser bicycles that will be used to conduct house to house visits within the village. As part of the community policing initiative, officers are assigned specific beats during which they are required to check on senior citizens in certain neighborhoods within their zones. Earlier today, in the community of Tropical Park, Woman Police Corporal Pietra Avila and a fellow officer were surprised with a gift of a bicycle each. It’s a noble gesture from private citizens who are equally concerned about the wellbeing of the elderly. Dylana Leslie represents Silent Santa.
Dylana Leslie
Dylana Leslie, Representative, Silent Santa
“We were just on a ride along with Broaster and we came up with these two police officers and they were doing spot checks on houses in this community and I think a lot of people don’t realize that they are actually visiting these homes, checking on the elderly and they were doing it on foot and it was hot. So when we spoke to them they were like, they were in desperate need of bicycles. So we got two and the other one was donated by Quan’s Trading Center. So they really needed the bicycles and now they’ll be able to reach more homes and quicker. So it’s a really good initiative.”
Pietra Avila
Cpl. Pietra Avila, Hattieville Police
“I’d like to say that community policing in Hattieville we have a wide area. It is from eight miles way up to La Democracia, however, we do community policing in all the areas. Most of it is the home visit so we go from house to house talking to people, getting their feedback about their police and stuff like that. So we usually take a walk. We walk from Hattieville Station right up to Tropical Park area then we go to Belize American Site. I told my boss we needed a bicycle because if we can go in a wider area we’d have to have a bicycle so he said, “Don’t worry, I’m going to give you a bicycle.” So today they came and gave us this bicycle and I am so grateful for it and trust me the work will continue. We’re always working so we’ll just continue. Nothing stops.”
Reporter
“How often do you do these patrols?”
Pietra Avila
“Every day. We’re supposed to have an amount of house visits for the day, business checks, school visit for the day. So that’s our task for the day.”
The value of the donation is a little over seven hundred dollars.
