And even though ASP Hernandez couldn't go into much detail regarding the internal investigation, the Commissioner of Police has already delivered his verdict. He says he does believe that the officers were excessive in their use of force, especially since extra measures were taken to educate the department about the very same policies that may have been breached. He added in their defense, that it isn't uncommon to find suspects of violent crimes fleeing on motorcycles - but emphasized that wasn't the case in this situation.
Chester Wiliams, Commissioner of Police
"From what I have seen through the investigation is that the force used by the police officers in that particular incident was excessive and it ought not to have occurred. As said by Mr Hernandez, we do have a pursuit policy and that pursuit policy is clear. I can tell you for the first time in the history of the police department, we have a partnership with the Human Rights Commission. We even went to the extent of creating some very nice human rights booklets that we issue to police officers.. we went even further to make sure that the legal unit within our department went around the country and ensure that they train police officers in the human rights policy, the pursuit policy, and the use of force policy because these are policies we know are very essential to the performance of police officers out on the streets and so any breach of those policies by members of the department must be taken very seriously, especially when the outcome is what we saw in Orange Walk on Saturday night."
Courtney Menzies:
"The officers trailed these men, or pursued these men, across a stretch of four miles in Orange Walk. Were they justified in being that dogged?"
Chester Wiliams, Commissioner of Police
"Well, we need to be fair and what I will say here, I don't want no one to take it to mean I am trying to justify what the police did. I have said before that what the police officers did was excessive in nature and ought not to occur. But I will say that recently we have scene a number of shootings in Orange Walk Town and in 90% of these shootings, the suspects are on motorcycles and so perhaps that's the reason why the police were eager to catching these individuals and it just so happens that it's a different circumstance. These young men, from what we know, are not engaged in any kind of gang or criminal activities in Orange Walk Town, they seemed to be a group of young men who just enjoyed riding their motorcycles and have fun, right, and it happens."
