“Uneducated” People Tend to Commit Crime, says ComPol Williams

Chester Williams

According to Police Commissioner, Chester Williams, continued partnership with all stakeholders played a crucial role in the effectiveness of the department’s policing strategy. Those stakeholders included the ministries of Education and Youths. Williams says that young men who are vulnerable to gang influence were taught life skills and provided with an education as a deterrent to gang life.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“You have the Ministry of Education who is focused on the education component. Often times we’ve heard that, uneducated people are the ones who normally tend to commit crime. And so there is an effort now to at least make sure that every child has a minimum of a high school diploma. And so the Ministry of Education has now piloted the free education effort on Southside Belize City. And we’re seeing more of our young people enrolled into school and trying to get a diploma either in the from academical aspect of education or from a skill component of education, whichever one they do get, it will help them to be able to become self sustenance, maybe become an entrepreneur or something. Then we do have the youth component. We are focused from the Ministry of Youth, Ministry of Sports, trying  to focus on our young people because if we want to secure our future, we have to invest in our young people. And so, while policing may be seen as, you know, going after bad guys and bad guys only we have gone beyond that where we are focusing on our young people, those persons who may have the potential to fall into that crack. To see how we can be proactive in capturing them either to be a part of our cadet program or to be a part of some other youth program that is being done through LIU or the ministry or the Department of Youths Services whatever the case may be. And so these are things that we try to ensure that we focus on to capture our young people going forward to 2024. We certainly need to build more on the foundation that we have lead with the effort to see how we can replicate or do better next year.”