Quality of Life Crimes to be Pursued Seriously in Absence of Curfew

Michael Peyrefitte

With the restriction of movement now being lifted, how will the police department be able to enforce other restrictions that fall under the present state of emergency?  The attorney general says that the department will now go into overdrive to ensure that social gatherings remain under ten persons and that quality of life offences will be actively pursued.

Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General

“Whatever you think is the law at this point, the law will be the same except that we will no longer have a curfew.  So if you want a good gauge as to what to do after midnight tonight, the gauge is everything remains the same, except there is no curfew.”

Isani Cayetano

“Now how do we police or enforce all of what you’ve just mentioned that continue to be the restrictions, notwithstanding that people can now move around in the streets of Belize?”

Michael Peyrefitte

“Well, I don’t know about freely.  Remember when we first started we said that in the absence of curfews it doesn’t mean that we’re prevented from enforcing what we call quality of life crimes.  So we will clamp down on loitering at night, wandering without any purpose.  So not because you don’t have a curfew means that you can just be on the street without a purpose at one in the morning.  The police will stop you and the police will ask you what you’re doing and if you’re wandering without a purpose then you can be charged for that as you could have been before we had these regulations related to COVID-19.  So there are certain laws on the books that prevent you from doing certain things that we don’t want you to do and those were in place long before COVID-19.  We will continue to enforce them, but without the curfew we will go into overdrive to enforce them.”