Awards for Top Police Officers

Today the Belize Police Department held an award ceremony to recognize the top performing officers and civilian staff of the Eastern Police Division. The event is used to reward those individuals who performed well last year and also to motivate other officers to follow the examples of those doing good work. The Commissioner of Police and Minister of State in the Ministry of Security were on hand to hand out plaques and other prizes. Andrea Polanco was at today’s awards ceremony and files the following report:

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Ninety-seven police officers and civilian staff of the Belize Police Department were awarded today at the fourth annual Eastern Police Division Awards ceremony. Among the awardees are police officers who made the highest number of arrests, drug and firearm interdictions in 2017.

Allan Woods

Cpl. Allan Woods, Most Drug Interdictions Awardee

“At present I am working at the crime investigation branch and in that we do a lot of operations – drug and firearm operations. As of early 2017, I was also tasked to do some operations in Caye Caulker and during that operation there, I did a lot of drug arrests.  I feel good. I feel proud of myself and I also feel proud of the officers that worked along with me to assist in the searches and arrests of the offenders. So, I feel good and will definitely continue working harder so I could get another award for this current year.”

Cpl. Roman Andrews, Prosecutor of the Year

“Every day is a challenge. It is always a new experience but I try to do my best every break that I get.”

Roman Andrews

Andrea Polanco

“What does it take to be the prosecutor of the year?”

Cpl. Roman Andrews

“Well, it takes a lot of reading. You have to be reading all the time. It is very challenging but my colleagues, friends, family, everybody support me and I just try to keep pushing to the next level every time.”

ASP Christopher Noble, Commander Precinct II, Top Community Policing Precinct

“First and foremost, totally off guard but it is based on the personnel at the Precinct that have been putting in their time to get the programs up and running off the ground; the community participation has been wonderful and it is their award.”

Christopher Noble

Andrea Polanco

“What do these programs and initiatives do for policing at your precinct – in the community?”

ASP Christopher Noble

“It serves dual purpose. It is police interaction and community interaction with the police. By marrying up both is actually benefitting us one hundred fold that we are the ones that get recognized and recognized by the people we serve.”

Minister Elodio Aragon Junior says this also highlights the overall effort of the Belize Police Department.

Elodio Aragon

Elodio Aragon, Minister of State, Ministry of National Security

“It speaks volumes about the people who receive these awards because we are showing that appreciation and recognition to them for the good work that they are doing because many times the Belize Police Department or the police personnel, the community out there doesn’t recognize the extend of the work that they do. Many times all the information they get is about what has happened. They don’t know the amount of hours, what police men and women have to do responding to a situation. So, these kinds of events are very important because they highlight the good work of the police.”

But among the two thousand officers of the department – there are those who are still not performing at the required level. Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie says the department is doing its best to support these officers.

Allen Whylie

Allen Whylie, Commissioner of Police

“We do a number of issues – the commanding officers starts at the relief level would usually speak to persons not performing up to standard. We do a number of in service training for the younger officers who may have passed out over the past year and half to two years. We have the field officers training program where we put them along with senior constables to mentor them and guide them. We have a time when they return back to the police training academy and they are interviewed and assessed in terms of their performance on the streets and those sorts of things. So, we do a number of things to continue to build our officers because policing is not necessarily just the training alone. It is by doing, you become proficient at doing it.”

Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.