Commissioner of Police Says Major Crimes Are Down
Chester Williams
There has been a noticeable reduction in violent crimes being recorded across the country. The Belize Police Department has been employing a crime fighting strategy that has yielded results in the number of murders and related offenses being committed. According to Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, it is the result of a concerted effort being made by various arms of law enforcement, including the Leadership Intervention Unit. But is the sharp decline enough to silence the naysayers?
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“Don’t tell that to the leader of the opposition. He has a different view. Ahm and just to correct you, major crimes overall is down. When we compared this year figure to last year it is down. But where you see it appears to be up is because this year, we are comparing reports for which court action were requested as well as those in which court action was not requested. Last year statistics were only court action reports. So if we put together the aggregate of court action and non-court action reports, the number of reports so far this year is down compare to last year. So overall, major crime is down. As much as the leader of the opposition is saying that he can reduce crime by half, maybe he is the one committing half of the crimes. That’s why he will reduce it by half, if he becomes prime minister. But don’t let nobody play politics with crime or let nobody trying to fool the public that they have the answer to crime. I think that the strategy we have in place right now with the LIU, the all of government approach is working. Yes there is more that needs to be done and we’re trying to get those other things done. We now have the new leader of LIU installed and she is coordinating with the different organizations to make sure that we come together and look at the other areas that we need to focus on to make sure that we can address the issue of crime. But again, no matter what we do, there is always going to be crime.”
