BPD Owes Six Figure Hotel Bill; Who Will Pay?

Chester Williams

The Belize Police Department owes a San Pedro hotel over a hundred thousand dollars. The hefty hotel tab is reportedly for accommodations for officers who have been working on the island. According to the Commissioner of Police, the Belize Police Department will not pay the six figure bill in its entirety. He says that it has to be a shared responsibility. At today’s briefing, ComPol Chester Williams didn’t say exactly who else should pick up the tab but he did say that he will be meeting with industry partners.  Here’s how Williams explains it.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Yes, the police officers have been staying at a hotel in San Pedro due to the unavailability of accommodations. I had been asking questions several times last year as to who was footing the bill because I had not seen any request for payment. Certain things were said to me as it relates to who is paying the bill and suddenly I saw something came in with an arrear, as you said, a six figure arrears. It is something that we will have to discuss with the proprietor of the establishment to see what can be worked out and who is going to pay the bill. I can say for sure that the police department is not going to pay the bill in its entirety. It has to be a shared responsibility.”

Reporter

“With the community; with whom?”

Chester Williams

“We will decide that when the time comes. In the time being, I have directed that the officers vacate that hotel immediately and we are trying to see how we can find alternative accommodation for them. At the end of the day we do understand the nature of San Pedro and the fragileness of tourism industry. So, I cannot say that I am going to withdraw the officers from there but rather to say that we will seek alternative accommodations. As much as the people need the island to be safe to be able to further the tourism business then we have to work together, as you said shared responsibility, in order to ensure that we have adequate number of officers on the island to make it safe. I am sure that they would agree that for the past six months since the officers went out and the new commander was installed, they have seen a drastic reduction in crime on the island and tourism industry is coming back on stream. I don’t want it to regress; we want to ensure that whatever we do will enhance the efforts that the police have already made on the island. I will meet with the proprietor of the establishment, meet with BTB and also meet with the San Pedro chapter of the BTIA and I believe that between the four of us we should be able to come up with some amicable solution to resolve the issue.”