Two weeks ago we showed you Police Minister John Saldivar touring the newly restructured Eastern Division's North, South and Rural formations. Well, San Pedro and Caye Caulker are also part of Eastern Division - North. He toured those areas on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Now, the island formations have their own particularities - not the least of which is the high number of extortion cases committed by corrupt cops against tourists, and of course, the murder of 18 year old Hilberto Sotz, which happened on Caye Caulker. But bad policing can sometimes be caused by poor working and living conditions. And that's what Saldivar found when he visited Caye Caulker. He discussed that and more when the tour was finished yesterday evening.
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"I continue to be impressed with the level of organization and strategy that the various officers in charge have been employing in their area. I am also again more convinced that the new configuration that we have put together for the Belize District is working and will continue to produce dividends for the police department."
Reporter
"What is the way forward sir?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"We have looked at various areas of deficiencies that we need to improve. One of the key things out here in San Pedro and Caye Caulker is residential quarters for our police officers. We must keep moral high and part of it is living conditions and other conditions under which police officers have to work and so the way forward for us is to try improve that. The ever present problem of mobility of our police officers through the two islands continue to be an issue for us and so we are also going to be working on that. Seeing it first hand and having the officers walk along with me to the various spots of interest and being able to see for myself what they are going through, visualize it, it definitely gives you a better perspective and it makes you understand more the plight of both police officers and the community."
Reporter
"What is your word of advice or caution to the police officers?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"Well as you know over the last year or two we've been trying to implement the community oriented policing strategy. We've always felt that there wasn't sufficient buy-in from the police perspective and also from the community perspective, but it seems to be changing, both from the police side and from the community side. People are more receptive to this new strategy and my advice is to embrace this community oriented policing strategy."
And to upgrade those barracks The Ministry of National Security has tapped into a 30 million US dollar loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. IT will be used for various Security initiatives.
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