Road traffic fatalities saw a major increase last year with over 100 persons dying. In the last month of the year, 10 passed away in a single accident. There were also plenty of motorcycle accidents, and teenagers who were killed in some of them.
But the police department is trying to lower that statistic this year with the introduction of the Highway Interdiction Team. The HIT Unit will be patrolling the highways, not just for traffic offenders, but also to keep an eye out on transnational crime.
Courtney Menzies was at the unit's launch today in Belmopan and has this story.
The Highway Interdiction Team will be hitting the highway after the launch of the brand new unit today. The team was created to address transnational crime as well as the road traffic crisis that Belize has been facing. Last year, there were 108 fatalities - about half of which were involved motorcycles.
But it is the hope of the ComPol and the Minister of Police that the HIT will be able to catch traffic offenders to mitigate these accidents, and be able to curb drug and human smuggling.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We saw it prudent to create a team that would be able to ensure the safety of our thoroughfare in the sense that we will be doing as much as we can to prevent our thoroughfare being used by human traffickers, firearm traffickers, ammunition traffickers, drug traffickers as well as human smugglers and those who engage in the transportation of contraband. And not just only that, we also have other types of transnational crime that we must guard against and so to have these teams on our highways on a daily basis it's going to serve us tremendously, ensuring that the highways are safe for those persons who use it. Secondary to the functions as I mentioned earlier, the issue of road safety, as it relates to ensuring that users of our highways comply with the road safety regulations and so the team will be issued with ticket books so they'll be able to issue traffic violation tickets. When conducting checkpoints they will be able to look for traffic violations and issue tickets and in those instances where the violation is one that is arrest-able then they will be arresting people. The objective here is to ensure that our highways are safe in every respect, from a crime perspective and from a road safety perspective."
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"I know that the focus of this highway interdiction team, is certainly on firearms trafficking, on, drug smuggling, human trafficking and smuggling. But it's also important that the work in tandem with our Department of Transport on their highway patrol in light of the very serious year that we've had and the number of traffic fatalities. And so it is my hope that this team, this highway interdiction team will also play a significant role in curbing the number of traffic fatalities and traffic accidents."
Courtney Menzies:
"What will they be doing differently that you think will help to reduce the number?"
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Well, of course, it's sort of like a highway patrol. Right now, the mobile interdiction team is more focused on border security. And so the presence, so to speak, is not there. This highway interdiction team, you will actually visibly see them on the highway interdicting offenders. And so there will be a greater presence on our highways that we have not seen before."
The unit has 14 members which will be divided into three teams placed at strategic locations:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"In the first instance yes it's 14 and as soon as the recruits who are in training right now graduate then the team is going to be increased in number. We start with three teams in the first instance, we have southern team, a western team, and a northern team. It is my hope that we'll be able to put a team between Belize and Belmopan by the first half of this year so we should be having four teams in place by June 1st 2025."
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Well, as you know, over the last two years, the northern operations has become sort of a permanent feature annually in our budget, where we seek additional funds and resources in that area. And so it is expected that along the northern border, we will be seeing a lot of the highway interdiction interdiction team, as well as in the south where we have a lot of plane landings. Yes, it is very remote areas in Dolores where we have most of the landings. But hopefully this year we can get to our forward operating base established in Dolores, along with the US embassy."
And with the new unit comes new equipment - today they received four vehicles, and they will also be provided with speed guns, breathalyzers and ticket books. But for these to be effective, the next part of the plan is to amend the legislation.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We are currently in discussion, I think should be finalized by now, the different amendments to the road traffic regulation that will deal with the issue of breathalyzers and strengthening some of the laws. I know Mr Rosado and the CTO have met on several occasions, looking at the different areas of concern to see the different recommendations that were made to cabinet in other for the amendment to be made so that process is in motion and we anticipate that it is going to be dealt with swiftly."
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