Police Commissioner Returns from Regional Commissioner Conference in Miami

Chester Williams

Commissioner of Police Chester Williams recently returned from a regional commissioners’ conference in Miami. During the conference, ComPol Williams engaged in a number of discussions on issues related to violent crimes within the Caribbean. The discourse also had a cybercrime component to it. And, one of the pressing issues for ComPol Williams is the proliferation of illegal firearms into Belize from the United States. It is a growing issue that must be stemmed says ComPol Williams. Today, he told reporters that he raised the matter with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in the U.S.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I attended the ACCP intersectional conference in Miami. And no, it was not held at Dolphin Mall. It was held at the Sherington Hotel at the International Airport. The conference basically was centered around the whole issue of dealing with violent crime within the Caribbean. We also touched on the issue of cyber crime and transnational organized crime, as well as the proliferation of firearms within the Caribbean region. We had presentations from ATF and one of my pressing issue to the person from ETF was the fact that there was. The poor accountability on their part in terms of the firearms leaving the US and the easy accessibility of firearms by persons in the US that they cannot go and buy a firearm and and there is no accountability in terms of what becomes of that firearm. And most times those firearms are what end up on our streets and people are killed by those firearms. So we had asked that there is greater accountability from ETF working in conjunction with the CCP’s to see how we can develop some portal. Some system that we’ll be able to track these firearms more easily when they leave the US and also for us domestically to ensure that we put more stringent measures in place to be able to search containers and vehicles that are coming into the country. Because for the most part, that is how the firms are being smuggled from the US well, we know the ones from the Guatemala or Central America comes to the poorest borders, but from the US, they’re coming through our lawful borders and again due to the fact that we’re not conducting proper searches on containers and vehicles that have been brought into the country.”