Police mobilize to maintain order

And while shoppers were stocking up, the police were busy planning how best to secure the city when people leave their homes to seek shelter.

At a new conference this afternoon the Acting Officer Commanding Eastern Division, Sr. Superintendent Chester Williams, announced a curfew beginning at eight o’ clock this evening.

Sr.Superintendant Chester Williams, Eastern Division
“The objective of the curfew is to keep criminals off the street during the time when we believe most people will be away from their homes, because they will be at shelters either in Belize City or outside of Belize City. We want to ensure that people properties are safe and secure. The policemen will be patrolling the street intensely and that have commenced since this morning, six o’ clock. We have put our human resources in one whole and divided into two, and we have a six a.m. to six p.m. shift and a six p.m. to six a.m. shift. And the officers—the reason for this is to maximize on our resources because we do not have enough officers to go into a three shift system to cover whatever areas we need to cover across the city. So with the personnels divided into two we are still stretched very thin , but we are able to man the city the way we want it to be manned. So the officers are posted to conduct foot patrols and mobile patrols. When the rain picks up heavily, then we’ll have to pull back on our foot patrols and we’ll only have mobile patrols to cover the entire city; but we’ll have the foot patrols in place for as long as we possibly could have them, but at the end of the day we’ll have to pull them in when the weather comes in.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“Critics argue that instead of doing a curfew prior to Dean making landfall, maybe the curfew should have happened after landfall has been made and the conditions of the city can be assessed.”

Sr.Superintendant Chester Williams, Eastern Division
“You see, um, Ann-Marie, as police officers, we need to be proactive in our work; and yes, whilst it may sound good to say ‘do the curfew after’, but that would be rather reactive, right. We are doing it before, and as I mentioned that it is subject to an extension after the storm tomorrow.”

Williams told News Five some five hundred police officers assisted by new recruits and B.D.F. soldiers will keep not only keep the city safe but other areas of the country as well. The curfew could well be extended if the need arises.