And a big part of the response to crime on the Southside is the Special Patrol Unit. Their teams are assigned to key gang hotspots. And today we saw them having a meeting at the Eastern Division conference. The Compol said he was going to read them the riot act:
Jules Vasquez
"And I see the SPU meeting upstairs. Are you all, are you all making an extra effort to make sure that nothing jumps off in Belize City?"
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well certainly, I will be reading the riot act to this team. I need to see more coming out of them, that's for sure. Um, Again. We pay very keen attention to the murder rate. These three murders in San Pedro really put a hurt on us. But like I said, we just have to do our best to solve it."
"I, I do not anticipate or foresee that we're going to lose Belize City. Despite those incidents that you spoke about, I still believe that we are working together the police, as well as the LIU as well as other stakeholders, as a part of LIU to ensure we achieve the objectives of the LIU."
"But at times, the policing efforts do fall short of our expectations. And so we believe that over the past few days, we have seen where the SPU have fall short of our expectations. And so we are going to have that meeting with him today to ensure we get back on track with where we want to be."
