Belize now has a database of registered sex offenders, and with it, the Ministry of National Security will be able to track persons convicted of sexual offenses.
It was made possible through an amendment to the Criminal Code, which the parliament passed back in 2014.
4 years later, Government's Belize Crime Observatory is teaming up with UNDP and USAID to make this a reality.
The Belize Sex Offenders Registry was developed under a project titled, Evidence based Information Management on Citizen Security in Central America, or InfoSegura for short. The project is funded by USAID and UNDP, and the authorities say that it was specifically designed to improve the quality of information for policy makers in Central American and the Dominican Republic. Belize was added to the project in 2015, and today, the registry is ready for all sex offenders to be entered into the database.
If you're wondering if you'll have access to this information, to hopefully better protect your children from sexual predators, it's not so simple. The registry will be managed by the Minister of National Security, and the Police Commissioner. If you want access to it, you'll have to formally apply to either of these offices with a reasoned explanation of why you should be allowed.
Today, at the Sensitization Session for this Registry, the press challenged the National Security CEO on their reasons for limiting access to the public, and here's how that conversation went:
George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security
"The Belize Sex Offenders Registry is a registry where we will record all those who passed through our criminal justice system for sex offences. There is a law that was passes when we had the amendment of the criminal code chapter 101 in 2014 and that particular law lays out all the protocols and ways in which we would manage the sex offenders registry. As you well know every individual has a constitutional right and so while we will be recording all those sex offenders in this registry, we will have to make sure that all those individuals who will have access to it, it is cleared accordance with the legislation that had been passed and it is clear that those people who will have access, will have access based on the approval of the minister and or the commissioner of police."
Reporter
"How does the public access this site?"
George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security
"It's not necessarily the public as such. There are certain people who will have access and for obvious reasons. It can't be just an open thing where any and everybody can have access and who knows what they will do with that information once it's in their hands. People will have ulterior motives. People will have hate for certain individuals and they would want to see them go to hell and so we have to be careful how we manage these information and so there will be access based on the minister or the commissioner."
Reporter
"Isn't the idea that the public is aware of who these persons are?"
George Lovell, C.E.O., Ministry of National Security
"Again, as I said certain constitutional right that we will have and the law is pretty clear in terms of who can or cannot have access. We as the managers at the ministry of national security have to do business that is consistent with the law and while there might be a number of desirable ways in which as a people would want to see this done, until the law gives us that opportunity to provide that kind of desire, we will have to live within the law."
Once you're approved access to the database, you can search it at offenders.nsc.gov.bz.
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