Belize Police Department website directs to a porn site

In June 2012, twelve year old Jasmine Lowe was found dead on a lonely street in the Cayo District. Her death sparked unprecedented awareness and action, and in her name the Jasmine Alert was born a month later. It’s a program which networks the country in an immediate response when children are reported missing. Like we said, it’s a community, business and Police effort, but something went terribly awry on Wednesday. That’s when it was reported that a Jasmine Alert link on the Belize Police Department website led directly to a porn site. The matter was brought to the attention of the Police Department, and today PR Coordinator Douglas Hyde told News Five their response to the unfortunate situation was immediate.

Douglas Hyde, PR Coordinator, Eastern Division

Douglas Hyde

“Let me firstly, with all due respect, de-associate ourselves from that and apologize to all the persons who basically accessed the Belize Police website. We realized yesterday that the specific link which is the Jasmine Alert – we have a section with the Belize Police Department website that focuses on the Jasmine Alert Program. The Police Department does not have a Jasmine Alert link, however that link itself is with our partner who basically has created, along with us, the Jasmine Alert Program. We realized that link itself basically went pornographic. It is beyond our control, and so what we did at that point, immediately, is that our technical people went and investigated and immediately removed that link site, and basically changed it to a Facebook site that we had created at least two years ago, focusing on the Jasmine Alert and updating and educating people about the whole process. So we have changed that immediately and we have put the Facebook of Jasmine Alert in terms of that.”

The offensive link carried on the Police Department website was www.jasminealert.com We clarified today that it has been removed.