Police on the Beat on Caesar Ridge

This afternoon, Belize City police took to the streets to acquaint themselves with residents of the Port Loyola, Driftwood Bay and Palm Grove communities.  The weekly meet and greet took place earlier today and News Five caught up with a team of officers led by Eastern Division South Commander Marco Vidal in the vicinity of Caesar Ridge Road.

Sr. Supt. Marco Vidal, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“The area is pretty much calm, we have not had any major incidents in this area.  So far the meet and greet is kind of the same sentiment that the people are sharing, they are saying that they see the police presence.  They’ve seen the frequent patrols and that is good because there is a level of interaction with the community in that area.”

Marco Vidal

Isani Cayetano

“I know that there is also the Yabra Community Resource Center here that is manned by the Belize Police Department.  In terms of joining that effort to maintain a presence in this neighborhood and to interact positively with residents in the Yabra community, what has that been like or what can you tell us about that partnership?”

Sr. Supt. Marco Vidal

“Well, it’s one police department so whatever programs they do incorporates or merges with whatever other efforts the police does.  So they have been very active, so certainly whatever successes are in this side has to be attributed to a great extent with what they do.  So certainly, there efforts will allow for better policing because there is a level of interaction from them that is even more direct than the patrols that are seen around that may not necessarily interact with the amount of persons that those persons would be interacting with, because people go to them as well.”