ComPol Meets with Tourism Stakeholders
Chester Williams
Tonight, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams will be meeting with stakeholders in the tourism industry in San Pedro following the double murder at sea and the disappearance of two men. The hoteliers and key persons on the island are concerned that the spiral of violence on the island will have ramifications to the tourism industry. Earlier today, ComPol Williams confirmed to News Five that he will be back on the island to document the unease and to ensure that there is sense of security for Belizeans and tourists alike on Ambergris Caye. Ahead of the meeting, Williams shares the policy strategy that will be employed.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“One of the things that we are looking at for San Pedro in the not too distant future—hopefully within a month, two months time—we will have the installation of some high quality surveillance cameras just as we have in Belize City. So we start off with that and thanks to B.T.B. for their generous contribution towards that project. The next thing that we are looking at to be able to assist the island is we want to open a booth for tourism police for north of San Pedro. We will be boosting the amount of tourism police officers in San Pedro by ten and then the ten officers will be working out of the booth north of San Pedro. They will be responsible to patrol from the Sir Barry Bowen Bridge all the way up to Secret Beach, wherever it may be. We will be getting for them a golf cart and two motorcycles that they can use to do their patrols. We want to ensure that there is a permanent checkpoint right at the booth in San Mateo where officers will be there to stop and search everything that goes into that area and back from that area. And that will give us some control in terms of activities that are occurring on the north of the island, inland. We also have the [Belize] Coast Guard who has also committed to providing patrols within the waterways—so they will be patrolling the sea as well as the lagoon. So we will ensure that we have some coverage in respect of ensuring that every aspect of the island is covered; the land, the sea. At the airstrip as well as where the boats come in, we will also be installing cameras there so that we can also monitor who comes on the island. And again, this is all being done with a view to ensure that we make the island as safe as possible for those persons who live and visit the island.”
We’ll have a report on that meeting in Thursday’s newscast.
