Cops Receive Firearm Training Through SICA
Today, the ITVET Compound in Belize City was buzzing with officers, prosecutors and scenes of crime personnel. A team of officers intercepted a heavily tinted Toyota four runner, detaining two persons. The men were bringing firearms into the country. An inspection of the vehicle led to a massive discovery – sixteen firearms ranging from shotguns to military type assault rifles and handguns. The weapons were stashed in various compartments of the vehicle and a thorough processing of the scene was conducted by the authorities. But it was all part of a demonstration organized through a SICA training being carried out by the Central American Program on Small Arms and Light Weapons Control, CASAC. News Five spoke with the participants on how the exercise translates into real life practices by the local law enforcement officers.
Rafael Donis, Firearms Expert, CASAC (Translated)
“They hone their skills as operators in the internal coordination that they should have for proactive investigations that will allow them to disband organizational structures. We go a bit beyond the offense and we really want to disorganize criminal gangs.”
Duane Moody
“So it is more than just targeting the crimes that are happening but the source of getting these firearms into the country?”
Rafael Donis
Rafael Donis (Translated)
“With these exercise, we don’t attack the effect but the source. Investigating a weapon is a responsibility—not just what they do, but how they enter the country, how they continue to enter the country, who sells them, who brings it to the criminal structures; that is the purpose.”
Supt. Carol Tucker, O.C., Prosecution Branch
“It’s to strengthen the prosecution branch in the prosecuting and the conviction of cases in court.”
Duane Moody
“How much of what is happening here at this practice session is what is really done in real life cases that your officers face, sometimes on a daily basis?”
Carol Tucker
Supt. Carol Tucker
“They do that on a daily basis so it is only to strengthen what they are doing on the grounds when they do the crime scene process.”
Duane Moody
“So what they are doing is what they’ve learnt?”
Supt. Carol Tucker
“Yes, what they are trained to do.”
Rafael Donis (Translated)
“Unfortunately, throughout the region, there is no specialty that is really tearing this from the root. When we come to a scenes of crime, we gear all our investigation towards the victim or the circumstances. The weapon is what we mainly use for proof to know that a crime has been committed. After that is finish we send the weapon to some warehouse, we destroy it and we also destroy the possibility of finding a structure of how it got into the country.”
