Police Officer Under Investigation for Using Chokehold on Drunk Driver

There was another caught-on-camera moment with police revealed over the weekend.  The video shows a police officer using a chokehold on a civilian.  The incident reportedly happened in Santa Elena, Cayo, and reports are that the man was drunk driving.  The video was upsetting to the public because the Police Department has a policy against chokeholds to subdue persons.  Once again, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says that there is more than what the video shows.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Yes I did saw a video last night again on social media with an officer who was holding a person in a chokehold. Again, I listened to the voices in the video and I heard where people were saying that those who were recording chose to record at a certain point but they did not record what took place before.   I am made to understand that the individual was under the influence and the police tried arduously to contain him and he was still behaving disorderly. As a matter of fact, you even saw in the video where the police tried to put him in the vehicle and he was still resisting and was fighting.   Now, I am not going to justify the actions of the officer in terms of putting the person in a chokehold because we do have a policy following the Georg Floyd incident in the U.S. We created our own internal policy to the effect that police officers in Belize are no longer to use the chokehold as method to be able to restrain a person. So the officer in question conduct would go against our internal police and so I have directed PSB to look at it but at the end of the day too we have to be reasonable and I don’t think that it something that warrants the police officer be killed.”