Belizean-Americans donate whistles to Bmp. CITCO
Criminals beware! If you’re planning on relocating to Belmopan any time soon, you better leave your bad habits behind. The capital city’s crime fighting campaign today got a shot in the arm with the donation of some five hundred whistles to be used in neighbourhood watch programmes. According to City Councillor Beverly Swasey, the donation of whistles by Belize Enterprise Incorporated, a group of Belizeans living in the United States, is in keeping with the goal of encouraging investments in the Garden City.
Beverly Swasey, Belmopan City Councillor
“Investors won’t come to a place where thins are out of hand and lots of crimes are being committed. And we think that these whistles will help a great deal in maintaining and keeping control of our city, keeping it crimeless, so that investors will want to come and invest, and that it will create the climate for investment.”
Egbert Higinio, Secretary, Belize Enterprise Inc.
“I take it that investors wouldn’t bring the money if there is a high crime rate. You know just like I tell people in Los Angeles, nobody want to invest money in L.A. if there is gang banging. You know, nobody wants to put their money where there is war and lot of tension, so we thought that this was a very good initiative coming from the Mayor. He thought that some whistles to help with preventing the increase of crime would be something that we could get involved with; and we thought that that is a good thing to be involved with.”
Audrey Pascascio, Chair, Concerned Citizens Committee
“As at today’s date because of the effort make by the police department and the City Council, we have Belmopan divided into different zones, which is twenty-four residential zones and we have seven commercial zones… Community policing is very, very vital for Belmopan. It is a growing city and it will not be too long before we start experiencing an increase in crimes as what is presently being experienced in Belize City. And community policing is simply a program that encourages vital communication between the residents and the police department.”
Rudolph Orio, Superintendent of Police
“This is exactly the essence of community policing: getting the citizenry interacting with each other, getting them to know the different government agencies that they can depend on so that they can have better understanding of the society.”
Patrick Jones
“Now, are these whistles likely to interrupt the peace and quiet of Belmopan. Is it going to become the city of noise after this?”
Beverly Swasey
“I hope not. I’m sure that when they are distributed, they will be distributed in a responsible way and that the people who get them will be responsible people who will know when and where and how to use them. Well if it is for a five minutes or so of noise to capture criminals and stop them from committing crimes, of course we’ll have to tolerate the noise.” (Laughs)
The Belmopan Concerned Citizens Committee has been active in the capital for the past nineteen months.
