And that pickup truck is part of the official response to the concerns taken to the Prime Minister by the Cayo Neighborhood Watch Association.
They submitted a seven-point list of demands to the Prime Minister on Monday. These were taken to Cabinet on Tuesday and last night the CEO in the Ministry of National Security was supposed to present a progress report to the community at a town meeting in San Ignacio.
But, things never got that far, the crowd was antsy and impatient with Attorney General Wilfred Elrington who scolded them about kids not brought up right - and told them that in his Pickstock Division he has to deal with many more murders than Cayo does.
That was enough for the crowd, which just got up and walked out en masse on the A-G who was left at the microphone talking.
It was an embarrassment beyond compare for the government - and more than that - it stopped them from getting the message out that many of those seven points would be dealt with - like - immediately.
Today, the CEO in the Ministry of National Security discussed the progress made on the registry of sex offenders with a monitoring system for those who get out on bail.
George Lovell - CEO - Ministry of National Security
"The second one had to do with that for the safety of our female folks, children and the community - a registry and monitoring system for the release convicts and offenders for crimes mentioned in the first petition which is sex offenders and or those repeated offenders of serious crime - be introduce to follow the whereabouts of these people once they are registered. I believe that that particular petition is not an unreasonable request. I don't see it as a unfair or unreasonable request and so we will seek to implement that right away. However what I and my ministry needs to do and this is just an implied task that we now have is to ensure that while we are doing so we are not infringing on anyone constitutional rights because we live in a country where we must have respect for law and order and the constitution being our most supreme law. Once we I check with my legal advisors and people and we find out that there is no problem with that then we can do that tomorrow. We can go there and ensure that the register and the monitoring system that we are talking about can be implemented immediately."
Another demand had to do with an urgent upgrade of the country's Forensic Services - and Lovell says that a 3-D ballistic analysis system is not only on the way, it's here! He explained:..
George Lovell - CEO - Ministry of National Security
"We are already along that road to ensure that we have the state of the art forensic laboratory system in Belize. This equipment will help us tremendously to develop that capacity that is needed. The capacity that people from the solidarity movement for justice and peace in Cayo and the people in Cayo are asking for."
"The second of that is DNA and it is my hope with the work that we are currently doing that we will see this particular discipline up and running in a very short time. We currently have discussions with our friends from the United States Government where we have an agreement for them to have assigned to us and our national forensic science services a DNA expert who will operate under two ways. The first will be for that individual to provide mentorship, the necessary training to add our local forensic specialist and secondly for him to provide that expert requirement that is needed in court for all the cases that involve DNA evidence."
There is currently no trained personnel to operate the IBIS system, but Lovell says training is being arranged.
George Lovell - CEO - Ministry of National Security
"As early as the end of work day today - I was assured from the Ministry of Finance that that vehicle that I spoke about that will be given to them will be delivered to the San Ignacio formation and that will happen as early as end of work day today. I would have like to have it done while you all were out there and to take it to the crowd and have it delivered. But there are certain documentation that drags on and I couldn't get it done from the time I made the promise yesterday. But my promise is that it would have been done by Friday which is tomorrow. I am still ahead of the game but not as fast as the people would like to see it done."
And the third follow up has to do with that police truck - which, when we spoke to him this afternoon, was on the way.
As regards other demands about the DPP's office, today's statement from the PM's office says that there will be the proper enforcement of the laws governing denial of bail in cases of sexual and other serious offences and greater coordination between the Police and the Office of the Director of the Public Prosecution to ensure more effectiveness in the investigation and preparation of cases for prosecution.
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