AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye Kevin 'Boco T' Kelly dies in SP Police custody

I attended a meeting with the Mayor last week and he has stated that crime is his top priority at this time. The police commissioner and the Minister of National Security will be meeting with the Mayor and our local Officer in Charge in the near future to address these crime issues. The meeting had to be delayed because of the crises in Belize city.

There is a coast guard station being built at this time and there are plans for a military base on the north end of the island and there is a movement to increase the police support starting with a meeting this Sunday at 2pm at the police station for any Belizean volunteers that are interested in becoming trained special constables.

The Mayor is focusing effort on the water taxi industry through the Ministry of Public transportation so that the operators will be required to manifest the passengers rather than only having a tally of the number of passengers.

The Mayor has announced all of these priorities on the morning show and so far I am seeing a lot of positive results.

This is very encouraging news, Amanda - thanks for relaying the information!

KODOS to Mayor Danny, to the team who met with him about crime-fighting plans - who I understand have presented a plan to the Town Council that just might work.
Despite the problems I truly feel like we have turned a corner, leaving complacency and bickering behind us.
VIVA SAN PEDRO.

gotta admit, the guy breaking his neck climbing over a fence sure was "handy"!

Some days ya just cant catch a break.

And if the Island had an incoming traffic monitoring system in place, he would have never been here in the first place (pretty good chance he took the water taxi from the city).

I am guessing he would have never made it to Caye Espanto..... (another Island under the same laws as AC).

We may not be able to stop people being on the island but we will know when a lot of folks are here.....

I looked on the Belize Police website and these are the requirements to apply as a Law Enforcement officer

Qualifications: Applicant must be a Belizean National, of good character with sound educational background.

(a) Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration; or
(b) Bachelor's Degree in Public Administration; or
(c) Bachelor's Degree in Management Studies; or
(d) Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Studies.

Age Limit: 21 to 30 Years

Physcial Requirements: Height - Minimum of 5'4"
Good Eyesight
To be otherwise physically fit
A strong sense of loyalty dedication to duty

Salary Scale:
NPS 8 - $19,404 x 840 - 22,764 E.B. 23,604 x 840 - 26,964


My experience in Belize was conducting a 6 month training session for the Military and Law Enforcement for your nation, Belize Special Activities Group(BSAG). I found BSAG to be better than most places I had been. They were motivated and professional, although we did weed out the weak.
The street police I found to be typical of most places I have been. Corruption was imbedded into the system, like the US Congress, and they lacked proper training. The initial training was adequate but the continuing training Belize needs to work on, such as weapons training, ethics and morale, and law.
I will say this; in all my travels I did see a small area in a country that was seriously corrupt have little to no corruption. Reason was that they hired their own local law enforcement, educated them on law, paid a little less than other police (not much). The key to all of this was the amount of respect that the community showed towards their officers. It was amazing, a police officer would walk around and everyone was respectful. They were constantly out on foot, they were always checking on local folks. Kids were respectful and some even made reference to being an officer. When I spoke to the officers they said that because the community supported them they felt obligated to support the community.
There was even a case where the locals came to the defense of one of the officers, another where the officers were involved in a fire fight and the entire male community came and fought beside them.
The reason this occured is because we hired LOCAL men from the community, we held the community leaders responsible for their actions, and we provided them proper training.
You guys are correct in that when you hire a law enforcement officer from PG and move them to SP then they could care less. It is expensive for that person to live there and they do not know anyone. Petition the Government to hire and retain local law enforcement, later as they develop in their carreer they can opt to move to another location.
Sorry about the rant just thought I would put in my 10cents worth.

You are saying exactly what we have lobbied for time and time again and we are continuing to work for. At the moment the laws do not support the local enforcement system, but we are coming up with some game game plans.

And yes, every police sgt I have spoken to has at least an associates degree or higher.

The pay still isn't on par with living at a decent level of existence in San Pedro.

We are also working hard to improve living conditions for the police that are stationed here.