Crimestoppers Belize PSA wins international award

A public service announcement that got mixed reviews locally has landed an international award. Commissioned by Crimestoppers Belize, the PSA seeks to highlight the ripple effect of gun violence. The ad won the Best Television Public Service Announcement award at the annual Crimestoppers International training conference in Las Vegas. This station has, over the years, partnered with Crimestoppers Belize to encourage the public to report crimes. Chief Operating Officer, Chris Garcia spoke to News Five about the award, which recognizes this station. 

Chris Garcia, Chief Operating Officer, Crimestoppers Belize

Chris Garcia

“As a part of the conference annually, they ask that the different programs send in different entries for the TV award, newspaper awards; they have several awards. Because we were able to attend the conference, we thought it was a good idea to submit one of our—to do an entry. The reason we chose the entry that we did was because of the different feedback we have been getting from the public about the ad. The ad is the one that in our mind, it portrays the fact that gun violence doesn’t only affect the person who does the shooting and the person who gets shot, but it affects the entire community. From the ad has been airing we have been getting mixed reviews; some people like it, some don’t.  Some people say that we’re promoting gun violence but I believe they do not listen to the wording that goes along with it and because of that mixed review, we thought it would be good to submit that ad and see what the international community thinks of it and that’s the ad that won for best public service announcement. The reason that the committee also has an award to Channel Five and Channel Seven is because throughout the years when we do presentations, when we receive tips, one of the questions that we ask is how have you heard about Crimestoppers, how have you heard about the ad? And the vast majority of the Belizean public would say Channel Five News, Channel Seven news and therefore when we submitted the entry, that was one of the questions; which media source the public heard about or saw your ad on and so that’s how Channel Five was chosen for an award. Sometimes, because we’re a small population, we believe that what we do here maybe doesn’t measure up to what the larger countries are doing. But receiving this award shows that we are measuring up because over twenty countries were at the conference and everybody submitted awards and we won for the best. They do it by category by population and so we won for the best in our category of three hundred thousand and over.”

The conference was attended by Garcia and Crimestoppers Belize Chairman Marcello Blake through a CARSI grant from the US Embassy.