Looking Forward to Policing in 2021, Despite COVID-19 Challenges

Chester Williams

While the department continues to battle the pandemic, as many of its officers remain on the frontline, the Commissioner of Police is grateful to the men and women who report to duty every day, notwithstanding the risks involved.  In anticipating what lies ahead for 2021, ComPol Williams reflects on the work that is presently before them.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I’d like to start off by saying a big thank you to the men and women of the Belize Police Department.  I know that the year 2020 has been a very challenging year for us and as we approach the end of this year and looking forward to welcome 2021, our challenges still remain.  And while some might say that next year is going to be better, there is no guarantee that next year is going to be better, and so I want to make it known to the police officers that regardless of how challenging the times may be, that there is always that silver lining ahead of us.  It’s just a matter for us to ensure that we search and we are going to find it.  Yes, at times it is more difficult to find than other times but we must search deeply to ensure that we see that silver lining and I think the silver lining in this case is to be assured that COVID-19 will come to an end, whether it’s next year or the year after.  But we believe that with the advent of the vaccines that we are now seeing being approved by WHO that it should give some relief to the world, which includes Belize.  In the meantime, we must continue to do our utmost best to ensure that we discharge our duties to the best of our ability, despite the challenges that we are confronted with by way of COVID-19.  As a police department, we have been resilient in terms of ensuring that the public that we serve continue to get that level of support and service that they deserve from us.  A number of our officers have fallen ill to the COVID-19 virus and it has left us significantly short of our human resources, but the officers who remain on duty continue to ensure that despite our shortage that we do our best to ensure that our people are safe and that really and truly for me, means a lot.”