A New Police Barracks is Inaugurated in Hattieville
Today, the rank and file of the Belize Police Department gathered in Hattieville for the opening of a project two and a half years in the making. It’s a new building which will greatly enhance the capabilities of the officers operating at the Hattieville Formation, providing room for intelligence operations by Special Branch personnel as well as barracks. As we said, it’s been two and a half years in construction, and while it is a boon, Minister of National Security John Saldivar admitted that resources are scarce but they are doing what they can with what they have.
John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
“We have the CABEI project which we hope will come on-stream in terms of implementation, hopefully by December of this year, but we do also have monies that have been budgeted in our Capital 2 that we’re trying to stretch as much as we can to deal with the urgent situation. I believe that Caye Caulker will probably be one of the ones that we’ll be attacking after this. But we try to make do with what we have, and hopefully the CABEI project will give us a big boost in that respect.”
Rochelle Chan
Insp. Rochelle Chan, O.C., Hattieville Police Station
“This building is a privilege to have. I know that our officers commute from time to time and at times of operations we can utilize this building for them to rest. I hope that they would provide more efficient and effective service to the public as we work hand in hand with the community.”
Reporter
“Speak to us about some of the challenges you are finding in the community. I know that lately this has been a very calm area.”
Insp. Rochelle Chan
“There are a lot of challenges because of the way how the topographic land mass of the area. We patrol from mile six to mile thirty-three and you find out that we have different communities that we need to respond to. Our response time off the village would be a couple minutes away. However I would give thanks that the community seems to be embracing our new community policing programs and are assisting us. With the new Whatsapp program and the new logo that we provide from the RED in relation to See Something, Say Something, Stop Something seems to be reaching out to the community and I can say that so far it has been efficient and effective for us and our response time hopefully with this new building and the personnel to equip this building will be more efficient and effective.”
John Saldivar
Reporter
“You mention personnel. Are you finding a problem with human resources?”
Insp. Rochelle Chan
“Human resources will always be a problem because of the growing communities in our area. We do have an issue with human resources but we manage to work and manage our resources in an efficient and effective manner.”
The cost of the building is eighty-five thousand dollars.
