Often-times on the news - you'll hear members of the public complaining about the police. Some of the criticisms are fair; some are not, but the truth is that the Department remains a ripe target for criticism because many of its officers lack training and professional development.
But that's what's been happening at the Police Training Academy in Belmopan this week: Management Training for Inspectors.
A few of the participants told us what they were learning and how they plan to put it to use:..
Inspector John Sanchez, Deputy Commander, ADU
"This training was geared up all about police management. It was gear up towards preparing us as managers - as young managers in the senior officer bracket of the police department to better plan and organize and lead our officers in the daily execution of their duty and by extension our deliverance of service to the wider public which we are mandated to do."
Inspector Santiago Ciau, Commander Homicide Unit
"We also train on analyzing evidence - how to represent evidence in court. What type of evidence you need to present in court and likewise we deal widely on police corruption. What measures needs to be taken to stop corruption, police brutality, measures needs to be taken to minimize it or to stop it on a whole and also we did the drills for police officers because there will come a time that you will need to do you training and drilling is a part of the training that we need to teach."
W/Insp. Sherelette Ramclam, Chief Clerk, Belmopan H.Q
"It's a forward for the police department that we have better training and will enable us to be more professional in our jobs as police officers/public officers. Our duty is for the public. One of the interesting topic for me was community policing is not only one of police business it's the whole community and the society so that we could be better enable to solve the problem that we have in our country."
The training started two weeks ago and finished today.
Channel 7