Police Visit Gang Hotspots on Southside for Latest Meet and Greet

Chester Williams

Today, the Police Department was meeting residents as part of its community policing initiatives. Eastern Division South police patrolled through the Saint Martin’s area, particularly on Administration Drive and Holy Emmanuel Street, which traverses through gang territories in that area. The recent murders on south side Belize City have generally taken place within that area. And violence caused by gang-rivalry or not, residents are in fear of their lives. We spoke with Assistant Commissioner of Police on the crime mitigation efforts in the area.

ACP Chester Williams, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“This is an area which has created some problem for policing over the past couple of weeks and since the spate of shootings we had in the area, we had increased our presence in terms of putting in additional patrols to be able to curb the trend. We are seeing some results; we are not yet where we want to be, but what we want to do is show the community what we are doing as a department to be able to make them feel safe and secure in their respective homes. Just to put police in an area as a form of deterrent will not curb crime situation. So in addition to the additional patrols we have put in, we have also intensified our mediation and intervention with the different groups within the area and that too is playing a significant role in us getting to where we want to go; to be able to restore that degree of safety that the members of the public rightly wants. So we will continue those efforts in ensuring that we maintain dialogue with the different factions because at the end of the day, what we want to do is to make these young people understand that there are different ways to resolve their conflicts rather than through the use of force or violence.”