A.G. says police must focus limited resources

Although the Belize Police Department is organised as a national force, the nation’s municipalities are increasingly working with local police detachments in an effort to improve law enforcement efforts. Last night in Belmopan the City Council convened a special public meeting to address the escalating incidence of crime in the nation’s capital. Guest speaker was Attorney General Godfrey Smith, who, while explaining the background of his government’s policies, reminded his audience that with limited resources the police must focus on what can be realistically achieved.

Godfrey Smith, Attorney General

“Sometimes people say look, we want you to deal with everything that’s occurring because it’s the small things that lead to the big things. So we want you to attack all incidences of crime. I heard on the radio this morning people talking about loitering, marijuana and so on…that is called the “zero tolerance” approach, we noh di tolerate no kinda crime. But if you’re talking about a poor country like Belize, because we are poor, under-resourced financially and in terms of human resources, can we really afford to have a zero tolerance approach? Or do we do a targeted approach where we say look, violent crimes, murder, robbery, rape, child abuse are the things that affects us most deeply, let’s go after those things.”

Among the initiatives proposed at the meeting were improved street lighting, enforcement of anti-loitering laws in known hotspots and a programme under which the City would provide one week of paid manual labour per month for unemployed youths.