Top policemen, women and dog honored

It’s been a while since the Belize Police Department has issued certificates of recognition for high school students who do the right thing.  But while that program may be on an indefinite hiatus, the department is making sure to recognize its own for their achievements over the past twelve months.  This afternoon at the Queen Street Police Station, officers from various units of law enforcement filed into the training room to be recognized by their respective commanders and Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie for the stellar work in policing that they have completed in 2017.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Twenty-five outstanding officers, including a K9 known as Amigo, were recognized today by the Belize Police Department for outstanding service in law enforcement during the year 2017.  The initiative to award these exemplary men, woman and dog was borne out of a sister city relationship that the local agency has established with the Harris County Police Department in Houston, Texas.

ACP Edward Broaster, Commander of Operations

ACP Edward Broaster

“We decided that we would award the hardworking officers who have been putting in some serious work in the city to enhance citizen security.  And I had a conversation with our counterpart Dell, who has been coming to Belize for the past fifteen years.  He first came with the officers from Harris County in Houston, where we established that sister city relationship with them and ever since then he has been a great friend to us.”

Reporter

“Now we see that you have awarded a few men, select individuals from various units.  Could you tell us what their contributions were and why they are being recognized?”

Edward Broaster

“Like I said, they are recognized for their hard work and we went based on data that we have available to us, through our analysis team.  They selected the top five from each specialized unit to be awarded today.”

Among the awardees is Amigo, a drug and firearm sniffing German Shepherd whose handler was also acknowledged as officer of the year.

Edward Broaster

“The officer commanding the K9 Unit, who works closely with the Humane Society has decided to have an award for the top dog of the year who has been Amigo.  Amigo has done a lot of great work in detecting drugs, as well as firearms, throughout the city, throughout the country on a whole and he has been the dog chosen for this year’s award because of the significant number of seizures that he had made.”

Of the twenty-five officers to be honored today, only nineteen of them were present for the brief ceremony at the Queen Street Police Station.  Their absence, according to Assistant Commissioner of Police Edward Broaster, was justified.

Edward Broaster

“We had twenty-five officers who received awards.  The other six that were not here are on the streets right now working, as their commander explained to me.  So I gave him the awards to give to the officers who are not here at this time.”

Isani Cayetano reporting for News Five.