7 News Belize

Whylie Speaks While Bullets Zip
posted (January 8, 2013)
And with all those rancorous anti police sentiment going around, Commissioner-designate Allen Whylie had what we'd have to say is the misfortune of being in the area at the same time when all the chaos was unfolding after the bodies were removed. He gave the media a brief interview on the situation and what the police department is doing to keep things under control - even as they seemed to be getting out of control, in real time:..

Allen Whylie - Commissioner Designate
"I must say that any life lost is unacceptable and regrettable and condolences extended to the family. As you know we receive this information early this morning and the police responded and it was a gruesome find. We will ensure that we have our top investigators assign to this matter and all resources will be utilize to try to solve this heinous crime. In addition to that additional resources will be deployed to this area to contain and deescalate this situation and we will remain in this area as long as we need to remain."

Patrick Jones, reporter
"Commissioner this is not typically the welcome that a commissioner gets to the post. You are going to put additional resources here, we've tried that before flood the streets with police officers and it keeps getting worse."

Allen Whylie - Commissioner Designate
"Well true, as we said there is a lot of challenges within the city and my task will be focusing specifically on Belize City whilst we have issues of crime nationwide Belize City is the battleground and I believe that it is a fight that we cannot give up, we cannot lose hope. We will be doing and trying different things, we will be re-evaluating strategies and will be changing and adapting. Our strategies have got to be flexible as the situation changes we change our strategies on the ground."

Reporter
"Sir, it's the 8th in the new year and the 8 murder already. It's getting worse."

Allen Whylie - Commissioner Designate
"You have to understand that we are out there and we have our patrols on the ground - we are trying to prevent but there are a lot of persons with personal grievances and issues and lots of these are crimes of opportunities - we cannot stop every crime but what we need to ensure is that we have the resources to quickly mobilize and to do a proper investigation and try to arrest the situation."

Monica Bodden
"Commissioner, I am sure that you may know that residents of the area strongly believe that these crimes were committed by police officers."

Allen Whylie - Commissioner Designate
"Again we have heard that, I would not accept that statement because I don't believe that our officers would resort to those sorts of things. I have the fullest confidence in the police; yes police are from the society and we have our good and our bad but I think that there are certain grounds that we would not step across, so I would never ever accept that kind of statement. That may be their beliefs - that may be their perception - they are entitle to their opinion and i cannot change that but I am certain that the investigation if it is successful would disprove that belief."

Reporter
"You say that you are going to put more people in this area. As you are speaking at this time there are gunshots firing in the area right now. Where is the police sir?"

Allen Whylie - Commissioner Designate
"You have been here before me and you have seen police around."

Reporter
"There are shots right next to you sir."

Allen Whylie - Commissioner Designate
"I have not heard any since I've been here but I will not dispute what you are saying. As you know it is a big area and gunshots echoes for great distance so it does not necessarily have to be one block - two blocks - three blocks from there."

Monica Bodden
"Now you are hearing the shots. Those were shots."

Allen Whylie - Commissioner Designate
"I have heard and we are responding to that. Thank you."

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