ACP Williams Says parents Must Play Role in Fighting Crime

Chester Williams

But according to Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, police intervention is not expected to deter murders, but minimize the occurrences of these bloody crimes. Strategies are now being put in place to prevent any retaliation in the area, but Williams says parents must take an active role in solving the problem.

ACP Chester Williams, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“The St. Martin’s area has expanded significantly. We try to see as best as we can to police the area; it is very challenging. And yes we had our patrols in place, but because the area is so huge, the patrols have other areas to cover. The truth is, we were not focusing too much on these types of crimes in that area because it has been dormant where shootings are concerned for a long time and we were more focusing on preventing the burglaries and so forth which has become more prevalent in the area. So you would find that the officers would not be on the La Croix Boulevard as often as they would, but try to cover the back areas more where the burglaries were occurring, to try and deter those types of crimes.”

Duane Moody

“Given this incident, will there be any mediation with gang members from the rivaling gangs to mitigate any further incidents?”

ACP Chester Williams

“Most naturally we will have to put things in place to mitigate any likely retaliation because we cannot take it lightly. We are sure that there may be some retaliation. Because of that, we have stepped up our presence in the Martin’s area again and you know what that means, that means we have to withdraw from certain areas where we had our presence and go in the St. Martin’s area. Presently on south side, like I always said, there is the potential for gang flare up anywhere on south side Belize City. So when we think we have one area covered, another area just flares up. So we have to…while we are focusing in the St. Martin’s area, we still have to try as best as we can to cover the other areas because we don’t want that while we are focusing there, then things flare up in another area. It is not a problem that the police can solve alone. Parents need to play a more active role in the lives of their children and even though some of these young men are past the year of eighteen, parents still do have a huge influence on them; some of them are living with their parents still. So if parents can keep track and monitor what these young men are doing, I think that it will help our efforts.”