Computer Stats Show Murders Are Down by 22%
Recent crime statistics have shown that murders in Belize have dipped by twenty-two percent. That is the information coming out of the Belize Police Department’s CompStat Report, short for computer statistics. CompStat is a method by which the police department measures crime trends, as well as crimes in a particular region. The revelation that murders for 2023 were down was not the only good news. In fact, as we found out today, so far for this year, all major crimes were also down by two percent. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“I am proud to report to the nation that when it comes to the overall criminal outlook for the country, crime is down.”
Marion Ali, Reporting
This is perhaps the most comforting news from the Commissioner of Police. But how exactly did the Belize Police Department arrive at the conclusion that crime in Belize is down, and by a whopping twenty-two percent? Commissioner Chester Williams explained.
Chester Williams
“If we were to look at the criminal outlook, particularly when it comes to murders from 2012 to present. The three least deadliest years we have had was 2013 when we had 99 murders, 2020 when we had 103, and 2022 when we had 113. And when we look at our figures so far for 2023, we are down at this time, compared to those three years where we had had great success.”
Williams said that like previous years, the Belize District has been the most active.
Chester Williams
“Belize district, Belize City being the commercial hub of the country, does have the most activity, when it comes to murders. The western region would be second, and then the northern region would be third, and the southern region would have the least murder activity. When it comes to overall major crime, we see that the Belize district is leading, followed closely by the west, and then the south. What is plaguing the south is the issue of burglaries. There are a lot of burglaries coming out of the Independence area, particularly Independence and Bella Vista.”
The Commissioner explained that the police department was able to keep a lid on murders in September to only three by the operational plan they had in place. And particularly, he said that the interventions that the police department staged, in tandem with other key activists, have proven effective in keeping the Belize District murder-free for an entire month.
Chester Williams
“Myself, Brother Nuri (Muhammad), (Raymond) Footie Gongora, Brother Stix (Perry Smith), even when we had the S.O.E in place, we had conducted a number of intervention sessions with the guys who were part of the S.O.E. before they came out of prison. And when we had the murder of Orel Leslie, again, we sprung into action. We brought in the different factions, we had interventions with them, we spoke to them and let them understand that going out there and retaliating is not going to bring back Orel. It is only going to make matters worse. And I believe that the conversation that we have been having with them is working. And we are seeing now that whenever the different factions would see that something is about to happen or there’s some tense rivalry developing between them, they would contact one of us and we’d bring them together and we try to quell the issue before it escalates to a stage where people get killed.”
Despite the encouraging numbers that the department has seen, Commissioner Williams acknowledged that it is not yet time to celebrate these low numbers.
Chester Williams
“The year still has three more months to go and we must, as I said to my commanders, that they must ensure that they keep up the work that they have been doing, pressing officers to work while keeping them motivated. If we have our officers motivated, certainly we’re going to get more from them. I can also say that we’ve, through the ministry and the government, have been pumping a lot of resources into the different parts of the country to ensure that the officers have the tools to work.”
Marion Ali for News Five.
