New Commander Replaces Cell Phones with Radios

This afternoon, new south side commander Howell Gillett received a donation of twenty thousand dollars worth of communications equipment from Belize Water Services Limited.  The handheld radios will be used by officers on the beat to communicate with each other and headquarters.  The generous contribution follows a call made by the Senior Superintendent after noticing that officers are spending too much time texting on Whatsapp.  So they are making a conscious decision to revert to the old handheld devices.

Howell Gillett

Sr. Supt. Howell Gillett, Commander, Eastern Division South

“Today is just the third day on the job here on the south side of Belize City and one of the concerns brought up by the officers, and I’ve seen firsthand, that officers are using their cell phones way too much and they’re being inattentive.  I discussed it with the Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie and he said we’ll try to get some radios for you.  I said it on the radio this morning on another media and the people from BWS heard it and they responded very quickly, in a matter of hours and they called and said that they are willing to donate sixteen radios which approximately is around twenty thousand dollars.  But that doesn’t include the programming.  They’ve promised to undertake that part of it too.  So before the end of this week we’ll be having sixteen radios that will be attached to south side Belize City and we believe that will improve the communication.  It’s independent of any of the telecom providers, so it’s much harder for any communication to be intercepted.  So the officers will now have a radio, there’s no need to be on cell phones and using other social [media] apps.  The main purpose is to communicate with the control room to provide information as to what they’ve seen or heard, if they ever need support.  And that is the easiest way to reach to the police control room because if you use a cell phone you’d have to dial 911, just one button you touch and you call in and say what you need to say.  So we’re happy for this donation.”