Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I need to commend the members of the police department. I believe that our officers were out there doing the best they could have. They were adhering to instructions as the advice was coming out of NEMO and other than that they were also doing their day to day policing work, conducting patrols in various hotspots, business areas, all with a view to ensure that they minimize the amount of criminal activity that may occur. As you would know, criminals tend to take advantage of these natural disasters to be able to commit their crimes so the police have had to look at tropical storm duties as well as the ordinary duties. And as much as we had flooding in almost every part of the country, our officers did not use flooding as an excuse not to come to work. They showed up with their raincoats, their rubber boots, and they were willing and ready to deliver for the Belizean people and so I want to, on behalf of myself and the minister, extend a heartfelt thank you to the men and women of the police department, as well the coast guard and the BDF who worked alongside us during the storm watch. And in terms of the directive coming out of NEMO to close down businesses, again the police had to enforce that and I don't think that we had much pushback, I think for the most part, Belizeans were compliant. Many of them did not open, and the few that opened, when the police went to them and told them to close, they closed down without any issue. And so we are also thankful to the Belizean people for adhering to the instructions as they came out of NEMO."