Email

Print

Sr. Supt Chester Williams - Commander, Eastern Division Southside
"Belize City south side was averaging between 4-5 murders per month and the efforts that we have put in since July of this year to present have seen major reduction in the murder rate. For the month of July, we had a total of 5 murders. Our efforts to fight the scourge of crime on south side Belize City continues. And in the month of August we recorded 1 murder. We were not satisfied with that. We met, myself and the management team, we discussed and we say we need to have a month without a murder on south side Belize City and gentlemen and ladies, the month of September was that month. The month of September recorded zero murders on south side Belize City. That is unprecedented. In recent memories we cannot recall a month where south side Belize City have gone without a murder. So that is a huge accomplishment. Since this administration came into effect on the 7th July 2015, Precinct 1 have not recorded not one single murder in 3 and half months. That again is unprecedented."

"Precinct 2 have a couple of challenges. It's a huge area and have several hotspots. We have the St. Martin's area which is very huge and we also have the Jane Usher Boulevard area which again was another killing zone. But we have doubled down on our efforts in those two areas in particular and we saw where it took it to zero in the month of September and we want to keep it that way."

"When we compare our murder rate for July to September of this year, to July to September last year, July to September last year had a total of 18 murders. July to September this year - 5. That's a reduction of something like 280% reduction."

"In April, May and June, south side Belize City had 17 murders. In July, August, September we have 5. So again whichever way you take the statistics we will still get huge decrease in our murder rates. There is always this perception that policing south side is difficult. It is not difficult. We do it every day with joy."

And while Sr. Superintendent Williams says his officers are policing with joy, they're doing so mostly on motorcycle and bicycles - because the entire southside only has three vehicles at its disposal. You heard it right: 3 vehicles for one of the most violent places on earth on a per square mile basis. He explained that burglaries are up in the southside and that could be attributable to not having enough vehicles at their disposal:...

Sr. Supt Chester Williams - Commander, Eastern Division Southside
"It is attributed significantly to the lack of vehicular and human resources. We have a huge area to cover, a huge population to police and the vehicular resources that we have is inadequate for us to be able to effectively police south side the way we want to. But we do not sit down and cry and say we can't do this because we don't have this. We improvised and we put things in place that the police officers can go out on a daily basis and effectively fight crime."

"Currently we have 8 vehicles for the entire south side and sometimes we are down to 2, because there are an old fleet of vehicles and they are always in the garage. It is extremely difficult. What I had to do is to borrow one of the community policing vehicle and put it in the Jane Usher Boulevard area, because thigs have become so rough. We have been promised some vehicles and we are very optimistic, we await those vehicles. The ideal situation that we want is to have one vehicle in each sector and two motorcycle patrols and a foot patrol. Then we have one vehicle per precinct to do operation work. So we are looking at 10 vehicles to be able to police south side Belize City, in the way we like to police it."

Jules Vasquez
"When you were officer commanding of Patrol Branch some time ago, many years ago actually, were there more vehicles in rotation then?"

Sr. Supt Chester Williams
"There were more vehicles. We had up to 10 vehicles in rotation."

Williams was in charge of the Patrol Branch eight years ago. So, without the heavy presence of mobile patrols - what has been driving crime down? The community policing approach embraced by Williams surely has something to do with it. But that means more than just going out into the communities - it also means ending the kind of provocative policing that often results in retaliatory crimes against the state. We're talking about "CP" or crime prevention - that dirty term police use to lock up persons for no good reason - other than the feeling that they may commit a crime. It's a tactic that has been employed possibly for decades - but Williams says he has rejected it because it's illegal and unproductive:...

Sr. Supt Chester Williams
"I believe that we the police are out there treating these different groups of people we called gangs in certain manner, they tend to retaliate and they do so against the state and the fact that we have change that atmosphere, the way police interact with the public, I believe have also impacted significantly to the reduction of crime. Because then the persons who were involved in these crimes now have a relationship with the police, to some extent trust us. We have built a relationship and we continue to work on that to see how best we could try and neutralize things between them even further."

Jules Vasquez
"Does this improved reduction in the number of what are known as CP (crime prevention) detention?"

Sr. Supt Chester Williams
"As a learnt person, I do not believe in CP. It is a violation of one constitutional rights. It is tantamount to unlawful imprisonment and as I have said when I came, I am not going to engage in any act that will cause the government of Belize to have to pay out money to persons as a result of the police having violated their rights. So we do not do CPs."