Police award Cayo crime committee for hard work
With one allegation of police brutality after the next and perceived corruption throughout the ranks, the Belize Police Department has had a tough time establishing and maintaining good community relations, especially in hotspots like Belize City. But as I found out this morning, there are pockets of cooperation scattered across the country whose efforts have produced real benefits for the rest of society.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
During brief ceremonies at the Raccoon Street Police Station in Belize City this morning, Commissioner Gerald Westby officially awarded members of the Twin Towns Crime Committee for their work with the department in the Cayo District.
Andres Lopez, Chair, Twin Towns Crime Committee
?We get damned tired, excuse my French, of hearing people say oh, the police don?t do this, the police don?t do that. Well we tell our community to get off their butts.?
According to committee chair, Andres Lopez, since 2001, his organisation has donated everything from flashlights and handcuffs to car parts and scooters to the Cayo cops…all valued at more than thirty-five thousand dollars.
Andres Lopez
?Everybody on this committee believes that we don?t need Government to do everything for us, that we can help ourselves, and the community needs to be involved in helping us. When we go out and we raise money, as we did this past Saturday, we had a dollar day…we asked the community to give us a dollar to help us with our projects and they turned out beautifully. We raised three thousand, our hundred dollars this last Saturday in three and a half hours. And when you see the community supporting the Police Department in this manner, you feel great, because these guys are overworked, underpaid, and they still work twenty-four hours a day for our benefit.?
Key to the success of the initiative has been the driving force of Commanding Officer Gilroy Nicholas. Nicholas says strong community relations make his job much easier.
Sr. Supt. Gilroy Nicholas, O.C., San Ignacio/Santa Elena
?It helps to keep crime minimal and it helps me to solve crime. I am not saying that crimes are not happening in San Ignacio, but we have a ninety-five rate of detection, they are very few that go unsolved. Probably we don?t make arrests, but we know the persons; only because that some of them abscond the country and they are out of the country. But as soon as they reappear, we will deal with them.?
The committee?s latest project was the construction of a police substation in Red Creek on the Western Highway. High on their success, the group is eager to help other areas establish similar initiatives, but point out that residents have to be serious about stamping out crime.
Cherry Berry, member, Twin Towns Crime Committee
?It?s very challenging; you really have to manage your time properly. For me, I work, I go to school at night, I do community work on the weekends, I attend meetings, but you really have to be interested and have a real willing heart to be able to do this.?
One man who wants to see the committee?s progress spread is Commissioner of Police Gerald Westby.
Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police
?What we want to do is exemplify what San Ignacio has done, they have raised funds, they have really reached out and been working with the community. And we want that message to flow out and let people see what can be done if people really want to help the police. We want to reach out and extend a hand because we need to work together to reduce crime.?
But as the Commissioner admits, police get a bad rap much more often than praise.
Gerald Westby
?I have made it abundantly clear that we must project a positive image, we must be more responsive to people?s complaints, and we must be more sensitive and I that will not tolerate dishonesty and that I will tolerate alleged brutality. But at the same time, I will support my police men and women in the performance of their duty.?
Honoured today for his duty to society was Police Constable Elroy Carcamo, currently attached to the Orange Walk Douglas substation. According to the department, Carcamo supervises one of the largest and most disciplined Youth Cadet Corps in the country.
According to the Twin Towns Crime Committee, projects already in the works include two more substations, one on the Benque Viejo road and another on the Bullet Tree road. The Red Creek substation, which contains bathrooms and holding cells, was built at a cost of more than twenty thousand dollars with monies earned through community fundraisers.
