That team of officers was able to intercept those fleeing suspects because their police mobile was in good working condition. Cops from Benque Viejo Town weren't so lucky with their main vehicle which spontaneously caught fire a few days ago.
We asked the Commissioner about that, and he told us that this particular vehicle was in constant need of repairs:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"Certainly, the vehicle has been in and out of the garage. It is from one of the old fleet of Wingles we had, and you have heard me say time and time again in interviews that the vehicles have served their time. Yes, the Benque Viejo police formation was trying their best to keep the Wingle going. They actually call it Lazarus, right. But it gives in. Certainly, there's no indication there is some malice on the part of the police or anyone. It just happened, and like with other vehicles, we have seen it before where vehicles just go up in flames. I am happy to see that the government has approved a new fleet of vehicles for police for months now. Still, due to the COVID pandemic, we have an issue where the dealers are not able to get the vehicles into the country as quickly as they would have done prior to COVID. But that was assured by the dealer that won the bid that by the end of this month, we should have at least ten of those vehicles in the country. And certainly, I'll be giving one of those vehicles to the Benque Viejo police formation because, at this time, they are operating without a vehicle. So we're just hoping and praying that the vehicles are going to come in as soon as possible and that we can get one vehicle back in Benque and even the City here in Belize City. We find that each precinct only has one vehicle, and that certainly is insufficient for us to be able to police the City the best way we possibly can. All of those are things that are affecting the performance of the police. But we cannot blame the government because they have acquired the vehicles. It's a matter for the dealer to get the vehicles in-country for us. So as soon as we get them, we'll be able to distribute more vehicles for the police to be able to conduct more preventative patrols within the City and across this country."
