Neighbourhood watch conference focuses on success

This weekend law enforcement officials and community leaders will converge in the capital city as part of the second annual Neighbourhood Watch Conference. Organised by executives of the Ministry of Home Affairs and members of the Belize Police Department, the strategy this year is to promote neighbourhood watch groups through success stories. It is hoped that at the end of the day participants will come up with a plan of action for next year focussing on improving quality of life rather than just making arrests.

Joseph Sampson, Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator
“Sometimes we have the situation where people feel that police involvement in their communities is a threat to their way of life. So we want to look at a different approach to the whole neighbourhood watch concept. It is more in terms of positive activity, what can we do to better our neighbourhoods, rather than what can we do to be fighting or to be collaborating with the police against crime. That is important, but creating a better way of life at this time is I think is the best road for the neighbourhood watch in Belize City.”

Yolanda Murray, Belize Police Department
“It’s a partnership situation where the community, we try to empower them with information, we try to educate them on the programmes so that they then can make their neighbourhood safer instead of only the police doing it. And we hope that this neighbourhood watch seminar, this conference that we will be having on Saturday in Belmopan will help to even promote the neighbourhood watch concept much further and that we can have even more neighbourhood watch happening, especially here in Belize City where there is a real need for it.”

The national neighbourhood watch conference starts at eight forty-five on Saturday morning at the George Price Centre in Belmopan.