In a society where lawlessness and disorder seem to always be on the rise, the importance of the Special Constable cannot be over-emphasized. They receive basic police training and fill in at places like the City Council that require a basic police presence and enforcement.
Today, 16 of those special constables graduated after 2 weeks of training in Belmopan. The Mayor was there to welcome them - and here's what she had to say:…
Mayor Moya-Flowers
"As you know our council is task with a lot of work; a lot of enforcement - as it pertains to public drinking - that's one of the main areas that they will be task to work with. Not only individuals who are outside liquor license establishment but also at our parks, there are key parks that for example some residents go to drink. These parks are not there for drinking unless there is a special event and they get permission to do so, so that's one area."
"Loitering is another key area. They will be right there to ensure that there is more vigilant enforcement, assisting also our sanitation officers in that process. Public nuisance comes in many different forms; noise pollution; that's an area - people sometimes has their music loud - our officers will be there to assist. There is many public nuisances that they will get the opportunity to assist in. We are hoping that in the execution of their duties that the residents will respect our special constables mandate to enforce the laws and we hope that they will be cooperating with our officers. At the end of the day they do have the right to arrest if the need arise, we are hoping that residents will understand that our special constables have a job to do and when they go out they are reminded to carry out their duties of course with justice, with fairness and we expect the same from residents to cooperate so that we can have a city that the residents can feel better about."
Celbert Butler, Supervisor Special Constables
"The training basically started out a bit difficult for us because you know we are not use to it, we are civilians going into that environment so we have a barrack that we go at night, we have to wake up early in the morning and by 7 o' clock we have to be having breakfast and again in the evening at 5 o' clock. It was kind of difficult but once we get pass that it was ok. The training was very intensive; every day we are in class from 7:30 in the morning up to 9 in the night. We were taught about justifiable force and harm. We were taught about chapter 85 of the City Council act, other bylaws like Horse and Carriage. we even deal with loitering tickets and traffic tickets, so there are holistic things that we have to deal with. The overall enforcement we are in charge of."
