Criminals are Eluding Reach of Police

Daniel Arzu

The murder of Christian Velasquez is the third in four days on the south side of Belize City. The two others are Wednesday morning’s home invasion turn murder of Ruben Esquivel and  taxi man Thomas Staine’s stabbing murder on Monday. It is has been just over a month since a change of command in the jurisdiction and we asked the Deputy Regional Commander of Eastern Division South, Superintendent Daniel Arzu about the steps taken to address these recent random murders. 

Supt. Daniel Arzu, Deputy Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“If you look at our crime fighting strategies; the efforts that we have been putting into keeping the streets safe, we have been quiet over a month or even long before. I am talking about since we came in as officers in charge; we have been ensuring that the streets are equipped with officers—if I may use that word. And the police officers have the strict mandate to be out there to ensure that we reduce crime at all costs and we have been doing that. Our officers are all around, but you know criminals find a way to commit crime and this is exactly what happened. It is not that we have our guards down; we have active foot, mobile, motorcycle patrols in place. And it is just that opportunities…criminals are seeking opportunities to commit their crime. But definitely we are out there in full force doing what we are required to do in terms of keeping this city safe.”