Rural Belize Police Department engaging the youths

The Police Department is fighting crime by targeting those believed to be most vulnerable, the youths. Through its cadet corps, Rural Belize District police officers are making a positive impact on children through extra-curricular activities. On Saturday, a sports day was held at the Burrell Boom basketball court that brought over a hundred youths who competed in several disciplines such as volleyball, football and basketball. Rural Executive Officer, Assistant Superintendent Christopher Noble this morning on Open Your Eyes on the success of the community policing initiative.

ASP Christopher Noble, Rural Executive Officer

“Throughout the day, we started a bit late, it was the first time for us, we expect it to be annual. The people did come out to see what their kids would have been doing. We need to start on these issue, getting these kids exposing them positively looking down the road, taking them on retreats, looking at spirituality, not that you are Catholic, Adventist or….no, just general you’re a Christian. So bringing this out in the kids and we have started establishing that our numbers for awards went way above a hundred. This is something that we want to try and we are asking people if you want your child to become a cadet, come we will give you a form. Because we are in the villages, we are isolated we want the parents to come on board with us. It’s not often that you do that but you will be surprised at how many of these kids are kids of parents that we’ve actually dealt with. Everybody is affected by crime so these kids we want to expose them positively so that it doesn’t continue.”