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South Side Commander Williams has also had a lot to say about his 9 pm Kids Curfew.  The debate has played out in the media and all sides have made strong arguments.

Now it seems that at long last the stakeholders have found some common ground. That’s because the department of Human development has jumped on-board in making the program more child-sensitive. This resolution was made at a meeting in Belmopan earlier this week. ACP Chester Williams told us about the little tweaks that have been made:

ACP Chester Williams - OC, Eastern Division South
"Instead of keeping the children at the police station overnight, there will not be a social worker on call. So once we pick up the child we will then call the social worker who will come into the police station immediately, will also bring in the parent of the child and they will meet with the social worker for the social worker to do the necessary inquiry which will then determine whether or not they will allow the child to go home with the parent for the night or if they will find alternative accommodations for the child and that again will depend on the social worker's assessment of the child's situation as well as the environment the child will be taken back to. So that is one head way we have made and if you recall that I had made two suggestions to the social personnel that we could either have a social worker on call or we could have a drop off centre so as not to have the children being taken to the police station as many as you would recall where against; while they may be for the curfew, they were against the fact that the children were being kept at the police station overnight. So we have now gone pass that issue that we will not be holding the children at the police station overnight but rather to have the social worker on call to come out and deal with the situation immediately."

And to bring the matter into sharper focus ACP Williams recounted a situation where they came across a very disheartening sight of a 2 year old minor out on the streets at night.

ACP Chester Williams - OC, Eastern Division South
"We found a 2 year old on the streets last week Saturday in St. Martin’s area and again that is very sad to see that a 2 year old child is walking the streets of Belize City at 2 AM in the morning. That was exposed to the possibility of varying degrees of harm and it goes to show the type of things that we're dealing with on a daily basis and we did in that situation, we had referred the matter to Domestic Violence Unit who then with the help of the Human Services Department has now dealt with the matter."

The Child Curfew continues with the official support of the Human development Department.