And while murder are trending up for the first half of 2022, the number of arrests if tapering off. There have been 20 arrests for the 62 murders so far this year. That means that so far only a third of the murders for 2022 have resulted in arrests.
That's a clearance rate of 33% - which is far below optimal. The commissioner said that's because so many of the murders are concentrated in the city, where brave witnesses are hard to come by:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"The challenge is in Belize City. You find that most of the murders we have out district are normally solve and because we get more cooperation from witnesses out district as opposed to Belize City. Most of the unsolved murders we have are in Belize City and again, is because of these murders are mostly gang related and when you do have the gang related type of murders nobody wants to speak and so if we do not get a surveillance footage or some other independent form of evidence that we can use, then we for the most part will be unable to make an arrest, because nobody wants to give statements against these gang members. So that's the challenge that we face in Belize City. But out district I must commend the investigators and the commanders for the work that they do in always doing their best to find the suspect in respect to these murders and it is not to say that the officers in Belize City are not doing the same, they certainly are working their butts off to try and find these perpetrators and get evidence, but the challenges is so great in Belize City that at times its difficult to overcome."
