And while tackling rogue cops with one hand, the ComPol also has to use the other hand to deal with increased crime across the country - particularly in Dangriga. The past five months have seen five murders and several shootings, and even fake grenade in the culture capital. Residents are feeling increasingly unsafe and they have been calling on the police department to bring the old Dangriga back - the one where they were able to walk the streets at night without worry and where children weren't targets for gunmen. The Commissioner is hoping to steer the town back in the right direction, and, as he put it, prevent the crime situation from becoming like that of Belize City. Today, the police department along with other government ministries held a community crime summit, during which they were able to dialogue with the public. Courtney Menzies was there and had this story.
Five months ago, 14-year-old Kwame Williams was gunned down in Dangriga. Seven days ago, 15-year-old Joshua Flores was also fatally shot. Between those two incidents, three other men met violent ends, and several others were shot - all in the tiny town.
And it's this increase in callous crime that prompted a community summit in Dangriga today. It saw the participation of the ComPol, the Ministers of Home Affairs and Youth, and the area rep as well as the mayor of Dangriga.
And this summit gave the residents the opportunity to voice their concerns - the main one being distrust between them and the police department because, like the ComPol said, some officers are like sieves - always leaking information.
Resident of Dangriga
"If you want information from me, then you have to be approachable, you have to approach me as human. We're all human. But when the police look at you, he will say, boy come here, I'm big man, I could be your father."
"Whenever you give information to the police, the same police you gave information to, they go and tell the criminal that you have given them information and your life and your family life will be at stake."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"If the people do not have trust in the police, they're not going to come to us and we cannot police in an environment where the public do not come to us or the public do not give us information because police work on 99% information received from the public and so it is imperative that we must have the public support with us to be able to police effectively and so that it something to change which is why I said that we have a number of police officers in Dangriga who re from Dangriga, they are too complacent, they know everybody, it is not helping us. As much as yes we'd like to have our officers work home, having them work home should not be at the detriment of the community."
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"I turn to the commissioner almost immediately to say that something has to be done because time and time again we see that individual police officers that hail from a particular community that they are in some instances, not all, they're either related to the criminal elements or they're friendly with the criminal elements so we have to remove that sort of close alliance that has been created and that's why quite regularly throughout the year we have transfer of police officers, whenever we hear of that happening we have to make those transfers across the country."
But these officials realise that the police aren't the only problem, rather crime is also caused by a combination of things, including a lack of support at home and poverty - issues that they are also planning to tackle.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"It is not only that we must change police but we must also change the culture as to how we operate as a people. It cannot be that we want to see crime
and violence go down and as parents, as brothers, as sisters, as cousins we tolerate those around us to be involved in crime and violence so it must start from the homes where parents take a more serious approach in terms of how they interact with their children, how they raise their children."
Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Youth and Sports
"Crime actually starts from the home, the way how you are brought up, and if the parents start to curb it from an early age, then we could see the children have a different attitude and a different atmosphere but one of the biggest crisis maybe might be employment so I will have to partner with Dr Zab from Dangriga to see how we can find employment for these people."
Hon. Dr Louis Zabaneh, Area Rep., Dangriga
"With the Youth Department, and now we have Minister Ferguson who is leading that, who is right here from Stann Creek West, we have a number of programs that we are already getting ready to put into play that will focus the youths on other activities where ultimately they could try to get into some type of
entrepreneurial activity so looking how we could get some small loans into their hands, the training they need, in combination also with additional support for students to go to ITVET and ANRI with ANRI being the agricultural school in this constituency as well."
And the police department has committed to increasing the number of officers stationed in Dangriga by 40%. On top of that, they will be trying to build back that bridge between the community and the department through community policing and neighborhood watches.
