7 News Belize

Police Commissioner Commits to Delivering Justice For Nestor Vasquez Jr.
posted (June 10, 2019)
Now as we told you on Friday, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams sent out a release condemning the negligence of the officers on duty and he took swift action in placing the officers on interdiction. Today at the police briefing, Williams re-iterated the action he is taking in this case and admitted that the police officers failed to follow proper protocol. Williams also committed to constructing a padded cell for mentally ill patients.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"As we have reported last week, the police department considered the actions of the police who were working the cell block, as well as that of the executive duty officer on duty at the time, to be an act of gross negligence in that they failed to ensure that these two prisoners who both have some mental disability were kept in the same cell detained. We have our protocols that govern the cell block area and from what the investigation is showing so far, there was a clear breach of our cell block protocol and so the officers who were on duty at that particular time have since been placed on disciplinary charges and have been interdicted from duty on half pay. I want to say this though, that I think it is time that we begin to have a discussion over how the police is to treat and keep prisoners who suffer from some mental disability with a view to ensure that there is no recurrence of this incident. And one of the things is, I have directed my finance officer as well as the commander of management service to do, is to see how we can prepare one of our cell blocks in such a way that we will be able to keep prisoners who suffer from mental disabilities, in such a way that they would not be able to cause serious injuries to themselves or others. Meaning what we will be doing, we will be looking at other cell blocks across the region or the world to see how it is structured. It might require us padding a cell block. When I say padding I mean that all the steels and everything will be padded with some material as well as the floor to ensure that if it is that they are to slam somebody into it or even themselves that the pad on the cell block itself will prevent them from sustaining serious injuries. That is one thing we need to look at. We also need to look at how they can have more avilable nurses that deals with mental patients to be able to work in colloboration with the police in situations like these, with a view to minimize any incidents of this nature. I know that this whole thing with Mr. Vasquez does not sit well with the public and neitheir does it sit well with us. One would expect that the last place their loved one would die would be at the police station and when the system fails the people, then it do calls for concern and as the comissioner I have said that there will be no cover ups, we are going to be transparent with this matter and the chips are going to fall where they may."

"I am disgusted by what happened. I always say that we must do things in such a way that we avoid liability and as an attorney myself, I can see a lawsuit and if it is that the Vasquez family should decide to sue, my advice would be to get it over with. There is no need to prolong the matter, the police messed up and we must pay, simple as that."

Jules says that they will continue to investigate for themselves to find out exactly what happened in that cell.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize