A new fleet of patrol cars for the Belize Police Department, that's the call being made via public tender since the existing vehicles are in a state of disrepair. It is no secret that the hundreds of pickup trucks assigned to the law enforcement agency are the most overused and least serviced. Those Wingles and D-Maxes that have become synonymous with mobile patrols across the country over the past four years have done their time and the department is looking for new rides to intercept the bad guys. So how will these vehicles be procured and where will the monies come from? According to ComPol Williams, it won't cost government a penny more than what is already being earmarked for the police department in annual vehicle maintenance.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police


"We have a fleet of vehicles that we received in 2019, that fleet of vehicle has spent its time. They are now in a dilapidated state. The fleet we got before that was in 2016, the [Isuzu] D-Max we got from the embassy, and the D-Max, likewise, have done their time. If you look at these vehicles, some of them, the panel that's supposed to hold the lights is so gone that some of these vehicles are running around without any lights. These vehicles are in and out of the garage and it is costing us a fortune to maintain them. So what we're doing is that we're putting out a tender to get a new fleet of vehicles. Now it is not a situation where the government will have to find the two point something million dollars to purchase these vehicles. But what we will do is that our annual recurrent budget, the monies that would have been used to maintain these old fleet of vehicles is what we will be paying the company for these vehicles. So we'll pay them over a two-year period for the vehicle from our recurrent budget."

Channel 5