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Home Affairs Minister Musa Praises Police
Thu, May 6, 2021

And while that was the COMPOL's take on crick trends, here's what the Minister had to say about his first few months holding what may be the toughest portfolio in cabinet:

Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs
"This morning as you're aware we're having our first quarter national comstat meeting heading by our commissioner of police and it is a very important tool in policing, as a matter of fact I would go even further to say it is a weapon in crime fighting strategy because what we do is we review the statistics over the first quarter to see where it is that crime is happening, who is committing these crimes and we certainly then make adjustments in our strategy to focus on these areas and come up with new and innovative ways including the use of technology to better our crime fighting strategy. So, it is a very important exercise and I'm very honoured to be here with all the members of the police department, the high-ranking members of the police department. So, it is a very transparent and a very accountable session because everybody has to come forth and inform the commissioner and the ministry of what has been going on so that we can make the necessary adjustments. The comstat conference is something that has been going on now for 7 years in Belize and what we are seeing now is based on the numbers from last year in terms of violent crime and last year if you could recall was a record year. I think commissioner if I'm not mistaken, we haven't had these low numbers as far back as 2014, that was the last time we had these low numbers."

The Minister also discussed the numbers for the Eastern Division, which has traditionally been one of the more difficult areas of the country to police. He celebrated the fact that there are fewer murders during this first quarter when compared to the same period last year:

Hon. Kareem Musa
"It is always one of our primary concerns, the eastern division is headed by assistant commissioner Rosado who I would like to say have been doing an exceptional job. Like I said the numbers are down for the first quarter in terms of murders, we are 24 murders for the first quarter compared to 38 last year in the eastern division and so one of our primary focuses when it comes to the eastern division has been home invasions a new type of crime and so while it may not be that you're seeing an increase in murders, we're having a different type of crime being committed and again, that is why it is so important for us to strategize as a group, as a department to come up with different ways we can tackle these new forms of crime."

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