Surveillance Cameras for Southside Belize City

The Belize Police Department has its eyes on the streets of the Old Capital, particularly in various hotspots on the city’s south side.  This afternoon, as many as eleven surveillance cameras were launched at the Raccoon Street headquarters, where Junior Minister Elodio Aragon and the brass of the police department gathered during a brief ceremony.  The undertaking carries a price tag of about a hundred and thirty thousand dollars and the installation was completed by a private security firm.  The inclusion of the observation equipment enhances the department’s ability to monitor activity within crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Elodio Aragon Jr.

Elodio Aragon Jr., Minister of Police

“Making an effort to get these cameras up is significant and I want to let the public know that through the CABEI loan agreement that has been signed by the government, definitely we’ll be seeing a number of monies that will be geared directly in seeing that in Belize City we have at least a hundred cameras installed across the city.  This will go a long way in enhancing our capabilities in the very near future and ensuring that we are able to respond even quicker and be able to have some kind of information to start our investigation with.  And I’ll tell you, the technological advances in terms of these cameras, right now as we speak is good enough for us to look at detection, good enough for us to be able to zoom in and look at license plates and also assist us in getting a bird’s eye view of what is happening on the ground in the commission of that crime.  And even when, it’s not only about detecting crime, it’s about preventing crime.  I think that these are the technologies that we are relying on now and for the foreseeable future.  I just want to say that it’s a good addition to what we have and some people might say it’s only eleven cameras but that is eleven more cameras that we did not have.  So it is a difference and it will impact on those areas that it will be covering and I look forward to seeing that these cameras are maintained.”