Since June of last year when a tourist was murdered on San Pedro, police have dramatically increased their presence on the island.
But the additional cops had no place to stay and they had to be put up at Pedro's Inn for more than 6 months.
But, police have now gotten the bill for that and we are told it's one hundred thousand dollars.
We asked the commissioner about it yesterday - and he seemed reluctant to discuss:
Jules Vasquez
"We have heard that your officers have been staying at a hotel in San Pedro doing their lawful business, their lawful duties, but that the police department has a six figure arrears at said accommodations, at the accommodations. Is this something that you're aware of?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"(Sighs) Let me see how to answer this one. Yes, police officers have been staying at a hotel in San Pedro. Due to the unavailability of accommodations. I had been asking questions several times last year as to who is footing the bill because, ahm, I have not seen any request for payment. Certain things were said to me as it relates to who is paying the bill. And, sudden one, I saw something came in with an arrears as you said, a six figure arrears. It is something that we will have to discuss with the proprietor of the establishment to see what can be worked out, and who is going to pay the bill. I can say for sure that the police department is not going to pay the bill in its entirety, it has to be a shared responsibility."
Jules Vasquez
"With the community? With who?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We'll decide that when the time comes. In the time being I have directed that the officers vacate that hotel immediately, and we're trying to see how we can find alternative accommodations for them."
"At the end of the day we do understand the nature of San Pedro and the fragility of the tourism industry, and so I cannot say that I am going to withdraw the officers from there, but, rather to say that we'll seek alternative accommodations. And, as much as the people of San Pedro need to be safe to be able to further their tourism business, then we have to work together like you said shared responsibility in order to ensure that we have adequate number of officers on island to make it safe."
"So we will see going froward, I will have to meet with the proprietor of the establishment; I will meet with the BTB; and I am going to meet with the San Pedro chapter of BTIA. And I believe that between the four of us we should be able to come up with some amicable solution to resolve the issue."
We have confirmed that police have since moved out of the building while the local chapter of the BTIA has said it is broke and cannot help to pay.
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