Surveillance Footage Do Help in Prosecutions

News Five also asked the Commissioner of Police, just how successful surveillance cameras have been in solving crime?

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police, B.P.D.

“We do appreciate the fact that a number of business establishments have mounted surveillance cameras inside their stores and to some extent outside. Now, I would like to make an appeal to the business place that while what you have done is good, it would also be better if you could put surveillance cameras on the street in front of your establishments as well because that helps to identify people from they’re entering. We find that the perpetrators of these robberies don’t walk the street with their face covered up. They would cover their face when they get to the store. So, when you have the camera at front it helps to pick up the person before they cover their face. And so, we urge that business establishment expands a little bit more to include the streets in front of their places. These surveillance footages have helped our investigators significantly in terms of identifying victims. We know e live in an area where witnesses and victims of crime are afraid to come out and identify perpetrators. And so, these cameras do help us to do the job that the victims or witnesses are afraid to do. And we do encourage it. From our standpoint, the police, we continue to see how we can on our own surveillance system, particular in Belize City. And we’re going to see very shortly, a number of additional cameras infused into Belize City, as a part of our surveillance system because we do appreciate the importance of these cameras and what they can do to make our jobs so much easier, for particularly our investigators and our prosecutors in our courts.”