AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize Life Living in Belize Police Public Consultation Meeting

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Belize time start but overall a good meeting with a very good turnout. Lot's of good comments and suggestions, let's hope that ears and minds were open and that they are implemented.

Some remarkable suggestions, at least for who made them.

Any summary available, or articles? Jessie any thing coming in the Daily?

I'll give you what I have:

Manifest lists for all water taxi's (nothing different than the airlines.)

Registration of all individuals renting rooms on the island (nothing different than the checks required for tenants in the US and Canada.)

Mexican system of guilty until proven innocent (ouch.)

Coast guard base to be built at the south tip (great idea.)

Taxi drivers to be the eyes and ears of the police (similar to taxi watches throughout North America.)

Criminals should have less civil rights than law abiding citizens (damn right.)

Community to be notified when criminals are released on bail as they are returned to their last known address (can you say website with pictures.)

Doubling the existing police force (26 officers to 18,000 residents, something is wrong there.)

The ability to anonymously identify and testify against criminals with out fear of retribution (half of our problem.)

Any other contributions?

Police to be assigned on a more permanent basis without the present rapid rotation..giving them a chance to get to know the area and people...and have a home and family life.

Interesting response to that one. I got the impression that the reason they didn't want that was to prevent corruption of the officers. Not a good way to instill a sense of pride in your ranks when you assume that if they stay for an extended time that they will become corrupt.

I didnt attend the meeting last night but I did attend the one earlier in the day with the SPBA. One of the suggestions that was mentioned at that meeting was that there would be an increase in tourist police, and that they would no longer be allowed to dictate that they would work 8-5. In other words, we would have tourist police (in theory) walking the beaches at night, riding bikes to patrol, assignments of officers to a particular area, etc. It was mentioned that if there are 12 policemen standing outside Big Daddy's at 3:00 am, it's likely that there is no one in the office to answer the phone. Same with 6 or 8 of them driving around in the pick up. These suggestions were made not by the attendees but by the police themselves, which I thought was a good start.

Personally, I think the suggestion made earlier by Amanda, Chris and maybe Simon was that any officers here need to be paid accordingly so that they can afford to live here and bring their families here. As long as they are compensated the same as every other officer in Belize, San Pedro will continue to be the "punishment posting". Better pay and living quarters, hand wash hand, just like every thing else here.....