As we told you last night - there was no gang warfare in the city over the long Easter weekend. But, what's behind the peace? Were the gangs just taking a holy weekend break? Or was it effective policing? Or was it effective mediation. We spoke to the commander of operations and the commander of the southside to get their perspectives:...
ACP Chester Williams
"I must thank all those who made the past weekend a success for us, that includes the police officers and those members of the public who were there with us to ensure that whatever activity they had observed within their neighborhoods were reported to the police in a timely manner. With that, we were able to respond to avert anything major from occurring."
Sup. Howell Gillett- O. C. Belmopan Police Station
"As we've seen over the Easter break the police worked tirelessly to keep the city calm. It had a lot to do with the police officers but also with the public cooperating with the police. So, in essence, the public behaved well during the Easter break but it has to do a lot with the public sharing information with the police beforehand so that we could have dealt with situations that may have arisen during that time."
ACP Chester Williams
"I must say that there is a combination of factors that have been contributing to the success on the ground in Belize City. We have the interventions and mediations sessions that are ongoing and that, again, is very critical because it affords us the opportunity to know what are the issues within the rival groups and to see how we can, with their assistance, arrive at some amicable resolution between them with a view to having them cease fire or put down the guns. Instead of using a gun to resolve issues we try to use words- diplomacy, as you would say; I think that that is always the best solution. And most naturally where diplomacy fails we have to begin that other aspect of policing, which is to be able to arrest those persons who want to continue to perpetrate criminal acts. Secondly, we have the other community policing initiatives that are ongoing in Eastern Division and we have the boots-on-the-ground, who are the police and the BDF who are in the different hot spots. We have reconfigured the operation act and that was done with a view for us to be able to identify those key areas from where crime was being committed and see how we can insert officers in those areas to mitigate the situation there while we work on the intervention to quell the tension between the groups."
Sup. Howell Gillett
"The number of texts and calls that have been coming in to help the police are what kept us safe over the weekend. I can tell you it is tiresome but we have a job and we are up for the challenge."
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