Police unveil 5 year plan to upgrade force
The police high command today launched their five-year Belize Policing Plan at a press conference at the Raccoon Street station. The plan lays out a course of action to improve road safety, reduce drunk driving, fight crime, target drug traffickers and improve criminal investigations. Although the media had no time to peruse the document, as it was handed to them at the press conference, some issues were clear, such as a promise to increase the proportion of officers at the district level to seventy percent of the total establishment. Also to expand is the number of police on the beat. Assistant Superintendent Carmen Zetina says that government is committed to the upgrade.
Carmen Zetina, Asst. Superintendent of Police
“Government has made a commitment of a hundred and sixty officers to be recruited this year. So actually you will find a slight change, let’s say by the month of September, October when we get the first batch of recruits out, you’ll notice it. What we are functioning is just doing the structural part, structural changes. First example, the Police Training School, training was one of the main things that we identify that we were lacking. We have established a planning unit for that purpose for that purpose.”
Hughington Williams, Police Commissioner
“As you notice, this is a rolling plan. There are certain things, which takes place in the first, second, third, and fourth year. By the end of the fourth year, then there should almost be everything that has been planned for being implemented in the department. This plan will be used by the public to remind us of those things that we said we would been doing and we haven’t been doing, to help us to keep on track. That’s the purpose of the public launching.”
The media also took the opportunity to question Police Commissioner Hughington Williams about the department’s latest major embarrassments: the recent break-in at the Belmopan exhibit room, and the earlier heist of high-powered weapons from the police armoury, also in the capital city.
Hughington Williams
“The investigations are being conducted in a way which should reveal exactly the method, the purpose and the who as to where these burglaries were concerned.”
Williams says the media will be informed as soon as there’s an arrest. The government of the United Kingdom has given one point five million Belize dollars to assist with the implementation of the five-year policing plan.
