How Does Police Minister, ComPol Grade Their Leadership?

Kareem Musa

We are two months away from the end of the year, but it is safe to say that major crimes are down significantly. Despite the five murders that were recorded last week, the murder count is still at its lowest in over a decade. There is a downward trend in other crimes such as robberies and burglaries and the trajectory is that it will be a record low this year.  Is this positive outlook a reflection of the leadership of the Belize Police Department and the Ministry of Home Affairs?

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“I always look forward to the grade that Jules Vasquez assigns to our ministry at the end of the year. No doubt it is one of the most difficult ministries to manage; I think any minister would acknowledge that. But certainly, so long as there is progress, so long as I have the commitment of all of the police officers, I am confident that the numbers will continue to go down – not just in the number of plane landings, but also in the number of murders, in the number of violent crimes and of course in other crimes: petty theft, robberies, burglaries. These are all things we are focused on day in day out. And so we still are on trajectory to have a record breaking year, I think, since 2007. And so, while it is a moment to celebrate, we cannot at any point say let us celebrate this victory. We have to keep pushing and keep bringing those numbers down.”

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I don’t want to celebrate just yet.  Like you rightly said, we do have two months to go for the year to come to an end. As you saw what took place last week; in two days, we had five. So we just have to ensure we keep our feet on the gas pedal and do what needs to be done in executing our policing plans. At the end of the day, as an organization, we strive to make sure that we make our citizens safe. And as Jules Vasquez would say, he knows that I do monitor the murder count very closely. Again the reason for that is because a life lost really takes a toll on a family and so we try our best to preserve life. And then the other types of crimes would then fall afterwards.”