Ombudsman says his department has been working on matter with police

Lionel Arzu

Tyrell Hyde is unhappy with the Police response to his complaint. He has presented video evidence which shows the officers involved. He even has witnesses who will corroborate his story. And still the Police seem to be dragging their feet. That’s how Tyrell feels, and it’s probably justified, since aside from his rights being abused by Police, he was also jacked by the officers. He claims that he was robbed of an envelope containing three thousand five hundred dollars, and then was taken to the ATM where his card was used to withdraw over two hundred dollars. None of those issues have been resolved, which is a source of frustration to Hyde. Today News Five spoke to Ombudsman Lionel Arzu who says his department has been working on the matter with the Police, but these things take time.

Lionel Arzu, Ombudsman

“Mr. Hyde came here several weeks ago. We took his statement…the staff here took his statement and we forwarded some documentation of the statement to the Police Professional Standards Bureau so that we could have their agency or their staff working along with us. At this point we have met with the people from the Professional Standards Bureau…that is Assistant Superintendent Glen Rivero and we have been doing work as it relates to the accusation and how best we can solve it up to this point. They are doing their end of it. They have identified who they need to identify based on the information and then they will liaise with us as to what directives they will take from here.”

Reporter

“He (Mr. Hyde) feels that the Police have not been cooperating. He feels that he is getting nowhere…that the Ombudsman has gone as far as he can go but the Police have not been meeting them halfway.”

Lionel Arzu

“Well I can assure that we had a meeting here last week with Assistant Commissioner Leal from the Belmopan Professional Standards Bureau and then Mr. Rivero and based on the discussion we are satisfied at this point because the Police has to do certain things before they can proceed with whatever recommendations and actions they will have to take thereafter. And they want to be careful. They don’t want to do things and have loose ends. They are making sure that all the ends are lopped off and so when they make a decision it’s a sure bet.”

Today, News Five tried to reach Assistant Superintendent Rivero, but were told that he was out of office.