Police Re-Organize Patrols in Eastern Division South; New Wheels Will Help
Chester Williams
The Eastern Division’s South region, long used to being the neglected step-child of the Police Department, finally got a major “come-up” with the recent distribution of vehicles to the Department a few weeks ago. Many of those vehicles have been pressed into service for patrols in both precincts under the command of ACP Chester Williams, and today the Regional Commander explained the purpose of adopting so-called “hotspot policing,” in which the vehicles are stationary for much of the day in a specific area where crime and usually gang-related violence is rampant, with occasional breaks for patrols in their sector.
ACP Chester Williams, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South
“So what we basically are trying to do is to do more hot-spot policing, and we try to restrict these vehicles to their respective areas, so as not to have them stray away. And it is something that we believe will work better in 2017 – we just started it, since we got the fleet of vehicles. So we are anticipating that 2017 will be a better year for us from a police standpoint, considering that we have our vehicular resources and they are deployed accordingly in order to effectively police Southside Belize City. You know that we were down with vehicular resources, and the seven additional vehicles boosted our vehicular fleet; and we are now able to provide patrols on a more wider scale and in a more timely manner. And if you look at each of the vehicles assigned to Southside, you will see that each vehicle has a designated area – I don’t know if you all noticed that – but there is a vehicle that is assigned to the Jane Usher Boulevard area and it is marked right on the doors of the vehicle; there is one assigned to the Yabra area – so the one for the Jane Usher Boulevard area is basically responsible to police the Jane Usher Boulevard area – that will be from Fabers’ Road junction to Jane Usher Boulevard, all the way to the back. Then we have the one that is for the Yabra – that is assigned to Gill Street, T Street, Nurse Findley, Allan Pitts Crescent – that general area, to Caesar Ridge, to Fabers’ Road.”
The other patrols are based in Southern Foreshore, covering the downtown area; specific patrols for St. Martin de Porres, the “Extensions”, Mayflower Street and environs, and Fabers’ Road areas, and Strike Team patrols in the George Street and the McKay and LaCroix Boulevard areas where gang rivalries occasionally get hot. Each vehicle is equipped with cameras and trackers monitored from the Raccoon Street office, and officers are under edict to not drive too fast or go outside of their assigned area for any reason.
