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Gang Violence Was Down and Belize City Safer in 2019
posted (January 8, 2020)
On Monday's news, we showed you the brief analysis that Police Commissioner Chester Williams shared with the press about last year's crime statistics. Well, since then, the Department has finished compiling all the figures for all crimes countrywide. They've promised to share that data with us, but up until news time tonight, we haven't received them.

The police high command and the Ministry of National Security did hold a COMSTAT conference this morning at the Police Training Academy in Belmopan to discuss last year's crime picture. The Police Commissioner invited the press for a briefing to discuss some of the trends that he and his advisors have identified. Here's what he had to say about the 4 main contributors to violent crimes which led to traumatic deaths last year:

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"We're currently doing our fourth quarter national COMSTAT for the year 2019, and yes, the figures are out. They have been finalized. Mr. Myvette will be tasked to provide you with the figures for 2019, compared to 2018."

"Having looked at the major crimes, particularly murders. As I said we do have a decrease compared to the previous 4 years. We're seeing that the number cause is alcohol consumption, followed by drugs, followed by gang-related, and then domestic violence. So, those are the 4 main causes of murders for 2019. We've also seen that violence have shifted from urban areas. We're seeing that a number of our murders for 2019 took place in rural communities, as opposed to within the towns and cities."

"We'll now have to see how we can develop a strategy to be able to address the crime situation within the rural areas. One of the things that we'll be using to address that will be the composite patrols. They'll be tasked to go into the different rural areas where the problems are more prevalent. Additionally, we have also seen from the crime trend, that of the total number of murders committed, 89 were committed firearms, 19 with knives, and 17 with machetes. So, those are things again that we have to focus on, especially when it comes to persons who are drinking and have with them pointed our edged tools or firearms."

"Belize City, in particular, I must say that the gang activities for 2019 were very low, compared to other years. And so, while we are always ready to vilify the gang members, we're seeing that they are not the main contributing factor to our murder count this year."

"Sex crimes are up particularly unlawful sexual intercourse. I think those are up by 66%. Bit again, you will know that those are things that occur within a home. Those are not things that the police can really and truly police. Rape is also up, I think slightly. Burglary, robberies, and theft are down."

The commissioner says that the department will focus on enforcing the laws against the possession of articles with a blade. That's the law where if you are caught in possession with knives, machetes, and other edge tools with blades measuring more than 3 inches long, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., you can be charged with that offense. The ComPol is urging his senior commanders to step up enforcement of this law, to hopefully reduce the deadly mix of alcohol consumption and bladed weapons.

In his interview with the press, Police Commissioner also provided a snapshot of the murder rate by districts. He said that Belize City, which has traditionally been a challenge jurisdiction to police, witnessed the smallest amount of murders since 2015:

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"I must commend Belize City because Belize City has the lowest murder count since 2015. The officers in Belize City performed exceedingly well, under Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr. Dawson. What we have asked him to do today is share with the other formations or the other regions, what is it that he did in Belize City yielded the success that he had so that they can now adapt that in the other parts of the country, and hopefully get the same results. While Belize City performed well, Rural Belize District's performance was very poor. In the Ladyville area, murders went up by over 100%."

"I think at the end of the year, Belize District has a reduction of 17. That could have been far more than 17, had the performance in the rural area been a bit better."

"In the northern region, the murder counts remain the same, compared to last year. They evened off. Overall, the major crime went up in the north by, I think 3%. In the wet, the murder count went up by 6, other crimes went down. So, while the murder count is up in the west, the overall major crime picture is down. In the south, murder went up by 25%, but other major crimes went down. So again, just like the west, the south has an increase in murder, but the overall major crimes are down. Belize District has an overall reduction in every category of crime; which includes murder and major crime. Belize City's major crimes went down by 134, compared to the same period last year."

As a footnote, we will add that while the Commissioner disputes our murder total of 138, and says the total is actually 134 - our numbers are from the government's own Crime Observatory website. At the end of November, that website - quoting figures from the Police Department stated that there had been 120 murders up to the end of November. And then there were 18 murders recorded in December, the highest for any December on record. So how does his tally show four fewer murders? Well, Commissioner Williams told us today that some of those case were wrongly classified as murders, and a reconciliation process is currently taking place. A skeptical view could also be taken that the numbers are being sanitized.

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