7 News Belize

Police Change Strategy: Less Checkpoints More Patrols
posted (March 19, 2020)

Close to one hundred persons are detained including those who have been brought in from out district as the southside state of emergency finishes its second day.

Police have compiled a list of suspected gang members who they intend to pursue and detain for 30 days, in the first instance, and very likely for as many as sixty days.

It's the strategy of a state of emergency in 8 zones of Belize city which was declared yesterday in response to 48 hours that saw 6 persons killed including two children and a mother.

But this state of emergency is employing new strategies to apprehend criminals and mitigate their manoeuvres, and that means abandoning fixed checkpoints in hotspot neighborhoods. According to the Commissioner, those have had the unintended effect of providing a safe shelter for criminals.

Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"This is one of the things that we have been doing over the past few weeks clearing the streets and that’s why now you’re seeing the gang men going to houses to shoot because they can’t find the target on the streets anymore because we have been busy clearing the streets so now we have to find a way now that we can now look at these gang people from an intelligence standpoint and specifically go and target them. I also want to say that in addition to our operations what we have done. You had seen a number of checkpoints around Belize City we have now removed those checkpoints because we have found out that these checkpoints in certain gang-ridden areas provide some sense of security to these gang members so what they do they go into other areas do their foolishness shoot after people then come back into the area and they're protected by the police so that safe haven is no longer remaining in one little area."

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

7 News Belize