2 San Pedro transfers including Officer in Charge

Sharmane Young

The sudden transfer of Sharmane Young, the Officer formerly in charge of the San Pedro Police Tourism unit, following her arrest of an unruly U.S. National Liza Mertz, had evoked criticism from the National Trade Union Congress of Belize (N.T.U.C.B.). The N.T.U.C.B. chastised Manuel Heredia, the Minister of Tourism, for his involvement in the situation, while asking for Young to be returned to the island. Today, it was also brought to light at the police press conference that the Officer Commanding the San Pedro Police Formation, Assistant Superintendent Vienne Robinson, will also be transferred in the New Year.

Elodio Aragon Jr., Assistant Commissioner of Police

Elodio Aragon Jr.

“Yes Minister Heredia had spoken to me. He made a call to me and expressed that he would love us to see if we could look into the situation of a specific tourist who was detained. I told him I would look into it the matter. I spoke to the Officer Commanding San Pedro and I looked into the issue. And the issue was plain. A tourist had committed herself; she was under the influence, I got to understand, and as a result the woman corporal had to place her under arrest and escorted her to the station. One of the concerns was when I looked at the situation, it was I think the holiday of the nineteenth—it was a long weekend. Looking at that situation there, I spoke to officer commanding and I asked her, will this person be charged; what will be the situation with her. If she is to spend all that weekend there for these minor offences and she mentioned to me that that is the present situation they are looking at. I said listen, this person is well known in San Pedro. And the police department, why will we take up a responsibility to have somebody detained who may be alleging at this point in time injuries or etc. Let us look at assisting in giving her bail so we will not have somebody up to Tuesday morning detained for these offences. I ensured that we got appropriate persons to sign bail. And this is all within the legal power of the police because we have legal authority for those decisions. And that was what was said and that was what was done. Now when it comes to the issue of Corporal Young being transferred from San Pedro and Miss Viennie from San Pedro, I will tell you this; when it comes to Miss Viennie Robinson, she has been slated for transfer and I think presently that is being looked at for January. If I am not mistaken it is for the fifteenth of January of next year for her to be transferred to Belize City and at that point in time, a replacement will be sent to San Pedro. And that had been planned already. In regards to Corporal Young, I would like to tell you that Corporal Young’s transfer is an administrative transfer and that transfer was made from police headquarters. And I think if you have any questions, I think it would be best for you to address that to police headquarters. When it comes to police transfers, I would like to mention that there is always a procedure—a process that we follow as a police department and there are always times or exigencies in the job when persons are required to be transferred immediately while others will be factored in within the rotational time for transfer for police officers. Like I mentioned, it will be best to address your questions to police headquarters who were responsible for the transfer of Corporal Young and I am quite sure that they will have reasons as to why they transferred her.”

Corporal Young was instructed to report to work in Belize City in mid December.