ComPol Refutes Crime Observatory’s Stats; not all Belize City Murders were Gang Related

The month of June was bloody and deadly with a horrifying and alarming murder count.  According to the Belize Crime Observatory, during the month of June one hundred and one major crimes were reported.  This is the first month for 2019 to record a higher count of major crimes when compared to the same month in 2018.  A report by the Crime Observatory states that up to June, sixty-six murders have been reported by the Police Department.  Of that number, eighteen were committed in the month of June alone. Nine out of every ten murders have been committed in the Belize District. As for the motives to these murders, the Belize Crime Observatory has deemed all murders committed in Belize City to be gang-related. Today, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams is refuting the Observatory’s data as it relates to the motive.  According to Williams, the majority of the murders are not gang-related.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The month of June we took a shellacking. That is the truth. Last year June we had four murders, this year June we had seventeen. That is a significant increase. Again, any objective observer would concede to the fact many of the murders in June were things that the police had no control over. It was not a situation where the gang violence was rampant and was getting out of control. The crimes that occurred in June, more than eighty percent of them were not committed by gang members or persons who we know to be gang members. So let us not go ahead of ourselves and try to bring down the police. I am sure and again any objective observer would concede that gang violence has been down since January and remains to be down to present. That is a direct result of the effective work being down by the police on our streets. While we took a shellacking in the month of June I do not equate that to the fact that our strategy is failing. Since then we regrouped, we have looked at tweaking our strategy to see how we can normalize things and I believe that the month of July has not been what we expected but much better than the month of June was.”