And further to his trip up the Rio Hondo, the Commissioner of police has sent a memo to his police officers telling them that they must rigorously enforce the law against border jumpers. It says, "when it comes to border jumpers, we must use no discretion. Every such person caught must be arrested, charged and taken before the court. This offence must be considered very serious as the violators are… putting the entire country at risk for a second wave of COVID-19." End quote.
But, in other cases, as regards masks or failure to provide reasons for moving outside of the curfew, Williams writes in the memo that police should show dome discretion in enforcement.
Today at the press briefing, he said that police should focus their energies on offences that can directly lead to crime:
Chester Williams- Commissioner of Police
"To some extent, the police have become loose in enforcing some aspect of the regulations. Instead, they are chasing after people who are not wearing masks or step out of a vehicle and forget to put on their mask, or step out of their house and forget to put on a mask, which is less problematic as opposed to people who are drinking. So, we need to streamline that officers understand what we need to go after. Yes I have said that the officers must exercise their discretion but at the same time we cannot take things for granted to say that we have no case and Belizeans must behave loose as if the potential for a second wave does not exist. But the effort of the police in terms of our crime fighting strategy is working and that is what is basically containing the crime at this time."
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