Safer City Initiative Project to be Piloted in Belize City

Chester Williams

Police are embarking in a pilot project called the Safer City Initiative. The project will see the installation of a network of high-definition cameras with enhanced capabilities to help police solve crimes and beef security measures. A command centre is under construction where the network will be based and manned. Today, Commissioner Williams says that the pilot will be implemented starting next month and will run through to January 2020. Williams explains how it will work.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“While, yes, we continue to make strides in our efforts to combat the crime situation, we believe that having the safer city project will enhance our ability significantly. I have had a number of meetings with BTL looking at getting the safer city off the ground. We have come to some agreement that the project will be piloted this December and January of next year. So, we are in the preparation stage for the implementation of the pilot project. We are constructing the camera command center which will be right behind the Raccoon Police Station. As soon as that is constructed, then we will fit the building with the necessary equipment and monitoring screens. We should be able to pilot the programme with twelve vehicle licenses plate reader and twelve facial recognition cameras. We anticipate that once the programme is successful, we will go into full implementation by March of next year. That, again, will see a number of cameras deployed across the city in addition to what we already have. Just today, I handed over to the Taiwanese Embassy a proposal for one hundred cameras to be added to the camera system we already have in place. Once that is approved, I have already been given word in principle that it will be approved, then we will be able to deploy those in addition to what we already have and those given by BTL, and hopefully by the end of next year we will be able to have over two hundred high-definition with night vision capability cameras deployed across Belize City. That will help us to be able to have greater control of the city through the monitoring of those cameras.”

The personnel who will monitor the camera network at the command center are being trained by B.T.L.