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Though they are minor, and are considered quality-of-life crimes, the Deputy Officer Commanding Police Precinct 2 says that the police need to show the public that they are serious about upholding the law:

ASP Calbert Flowers - Deputy OC, Police Precinct 2
"These are crimes that are in our laws, on our books and we are just starting to enforce them. These are petty misdemeanor offences that have been overlooked for quite some time. We have been trying all different approaches to try to combat this violence, this crime in Belize City. So we are approaching them from the smallest offence up to the largest. We won't overlook anything at this time. So we want to warn the public that riding a bicycle on a sidewalk is an offence, riding a bicycle contrary to traffic, without light, without bell, without brake, is an offense. And the police will continue to do this operation to target these people. We know that some innocent people will be inconvenienced, but we urge people to come on board and do the right thing."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir is this a part of the operations to deal with the recent crimes happening this week and past weeks?"

ASP Calbert Flowers - Deputy OC, Police Precinct 2
"Absolutely, all these are efforts to try to combat this crime situation in Belize. We are also targeting public drinking and loitering. A lot of people hanging out on the street side drinking alcohol like it is legal. We want to sound the message that it is not legal to drink alcohol and to hang out on the street side in Belize City."

We've been informed that for this week alone some 80 people were arraigned in the Magistrate's Court for bike offences, and over 120 for loitering or public drinking. These are crimes for which you pay a fine if found guilty.