Williams Says Mediation Returns Full Force

There will be a return to the police-sponsored mediation and intervention sessions which Chester Williams pioneered during his time at Eastern Division (South). Williams will once again join forces with Dianne Finnegan of the Youth Apprenticeship Program; Nuri Muhammad and others, under the aegis of new Eastern Division Commander Robert Mariano and Southside commander Howell Gillett. While Williams will not step on toes, he does intend to dedicate most of his time in the next few months to calming down a turbulent Belize City and especially the Southside.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Deputy Commissioner (Operations)

“I will be collaborating with Miss Finnegan and Brother Nuri as well as C.Y.D.P., to see how we can pool our resources together, that we can do more interventions, with a view to see how we can mitigate the amount of hate and anger that is out there on our streets, because again, if we don’t find a way to mitigate the hate and anger between these young men, then no ‘kay what level of policing we do, it will always be out there and it will always come back and haunt us. So we have to see how we can work on things like that moving forward. My responsibility is not only Belize City, I have a national responsibility. But for the time being, because of what exists in Belize City, I will be concentrating most of my time in Belize City, working with the new Commander Mr. Mariano, and the Southside Commander, Mr. Howell Gillett, to see how we can get these things going and going very quickly. Because there is a situation at hand that needs to be addressed, in order for us to give our citizenry that sense of safety that they so rightly deserve.”