Firearms, and other dangerous goods utilized within the police often carry a special mark. They are marked to keep track of, and prevent the weapons from being stolen and falling into the wrong hands, and it takes a special machine to mark them.
As of today the BPD has two of these machines in their possession, thanks to the OAS and its "Promoting Firearms Marking in Latin America and the Caribbean" project, but apart from marking firearms within the department what other plans does the BPD have in terms of upgrading it's firearm security? Jomarie Lanza attended the handing over of the machine today and here's what she found out.
In 2011 the OAS and the United Nations donated their first ever firearms marking equipment to the Belize Police Department, as part of a wider project called "Promoting Firearms Marking in Latin America and the Caribbean." A total of 13 countries had signed onto the project and also received equipment.
But today, just 12 years later, the OAS has handed over a second firearms marking machine to the department, in addition to providing training to officers on how to use the machine.
Luiz Octavio Coimbra, Representative, O.A.S. Belize
"The organization of American states through the programme of assistance to control of firearms and ammunition, with funding from the European Union is donating the firearm marking machine that's in here to the Belizean police. The equipment will be used by your ministry of home affairs to improve controls against illicit trafficking of such weapons and promote firearms traceability, marking weapons is a crucial practice that helps law enforcement agencies and military organizations to identify firearms and ammunition that are used in crimes. It can also help with inventory management and ensure that the right systems are available to the right units at the right time. According to the gun policy in 2017 there are almost 30,000 unregistered and unreleased firearms. Though marking weapons in Belize will be an important practice to help law enforcement to identify firearms. The unique markings can be used to trace the origin of the weapon and track the movement of the weapon from the manufacturer to the user. This information can be used to investigate crimes, prevent the illegal trade of weapons and hold individuals accountable for their actions. Since 2020 the OAS has supported the government of Belize in improving its capacities to manage the life cycle of firearms and ammunition to avoid diversion to the illicit market."
This $50,000 donation comes on the heels of the Firearms Amendment Bill which now takes away the sole authority and discretion to issue gun licenses from the commissioner of police and vests it in a three person Firearms and Ammunition Control Board. But now that the department has this technology - for the second time - the commissioner says that he hopes to expand the marking of firearms beyond the BPD, and believes that every gun that enters the country should be marked.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"And so as a department we have commenced the marking of firearms but only for the police department so every firearm that the police department uses carries a mark from us. I would like to see if we can extend the marking not just to police but all licensed firearm or every firearm that comes into the country that we ensure that those firearms are marked upon entering before they are sold by the gun dealer or even after they are sold by the gun dealer once they come to license the firearm then we mark the firearm and then we give it to the person and so that would be a much larger project for us to look at but certainly there is a need for us to ensure that every firearm that comes into country is marked. That way we will have a greater appreciation in terms of how firearms are being moved within the region. Often times we will come across firearms that carry the Guatemala mark, we don't know if Guatemala would have had firearms from us because we don't have our mark on our firearms that are being sold by our respective gun dealers so we are grateful for this and our next project should be to ensure that we mark every firearm that comes into the country and I can assure you that the Belize police department will continue to do our utmost best to work with not just the government organizations but other NGOS to stem the occurrences of crime particularly gun related crimes in our country. Even the licensed firearms at times do get into the hands of the wrong persons and so we want to be able to make sure that we can track those weapons wherever they go anywhere in the world and again to have them marked will be one such way to ensure that we keep a grip on the proliferation of firearms within the region and the world."
