ComPol Chester Williams on Movement of People during S.O.E.

Chester Williams

As you heard, since the beginning of this week, traffic has picked up and movement across the city has increased. So there is concern some have thrown caution to the wind even though COVID-19 remains a real threat to the country. Commissioner of Police says that while restrictions have been eased, police officers remain on the beat, ensuring that the parameters of the S.O.E. are adhered to.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“It is of concern that we see a number of traffic on the road and in Belize City. We must realize that many places reopened; stores are opening longer, hardware stores are open and so there are more workers going to work now as opposed to a week, two weeks ago. And so that will create a greater number of persons on the streets and with more businesses open, then more people will be attracted to those businesses and so it also causes non-essential people to be on the streets who are going to do their shopping or going to the doctor or going to pay a light or water bill and so that is what is causing the increase. The police continue to do our part in terms of stopping and interviewing people to ensure that the purpose for which they are on the streets is well within the regulations. And I think that while we might have a few slip ups, the officers have been doing pretty good. I spoke to them yesterday, I sent out a directive actually and again reminded the officers that every vehicle that passes through the checkpoint must be stopped and persons onboard must be interviewed. And so people might experience longer wait at the checkpoints, but it is our duty to ensure that we stop every vehicle and we interview every person in those vehicles as to where they are going and for what purpose.”