And now the police department will have many more boots on the ground to tackle gang activity in the city, and major crimes across the country. Squad 97 has officially joined the ranks of the department after their passing out today.
This squad is particularly special, and they'll be stationed at areas that have been seeing high levels of tension over the past few weeks. Courtney Menzies was at the ceremony today and has this story.
More than 200 police recruits became officers today after 6 grueling months at the Police Training Academy. It's the largest passing out in Belize's history, but according to the Minister of Home Affairs, that isn't the only record this squad broke.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"You make history today because you are members of the largest recruit squad in Belizean history. Today we are honored to welcome a cadre of 231 police officers. More significant than that, Squad 97 has proven to be a squad of firsts with an unprecedented 57 of its trainees being women. This constitutes nearly 25% of the squad, surpassing the United Nations standard of just 20%."
"Your job is the business of security but it only becomes meaningful when people feel safe. As police officers, you wear many hats. There are a lot of issues to contend with, both within your precincts and on the streets of the country."
"You must remember, you are many things to many people but primarily among these you must remember that you are professionals."
"So when people ask, what is a police officer for anyway? Your answer should always be that the police exist to work in partnership with the community for a safer Belize."
And they hit the streets of Belize immediately - the ComPol explained the strategic locations where the new recruits will be stationed.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"You'll know that recently we had the issue in the Belize River Valley area where the residents of that stretch of road are complaining about the poor policing effort being done by the police officers in rural Belize and so again Ladyville will be getting ten of these recruits and Boom police station will now be transferred into a more full fledged police station, offering more police services and more officers so we have ten of the recruits going to Burrell Boom and then in addition to them we are putting a sergeant in Boom and another one in… Bermudian Landing and Burrell Boom those are two places we're putting a sergeants and we already have a sergeant in Sandhill and so we're trying to see how we could more officers on the ground in rural Belize."
"As you know so far this year rural Belize has been a pain in our butt and we have to find a way to address it."
"And then we have some officers going to the south, Placencia and Seine Bight again, Hopkin, those tourist destinations, we do have some going to Caye Caulker, San Pedro, so we try as best as we can to distribute them equitably across the country."
And while this was the largest graduating class, it still doesn't bring the numbers of the police department to where the minister and the ComPol would want it to be. But the Commissioner is hopeful that another intake is in the near future.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"The 231 graduating today is not enough to meet our policing demand but it is going to go a long way in our policing plan. I'm hoping that by the end of this year, we should be getting another squad, hopefully a smaller one then we see how we go from there. But again I congratulate all these new police officers and welcome them into the ranks of our department and I want to thank their families for supporting them as they take on this very difficult venture of being a police officers in Belize."
The majority of the officers will be in the Belize District, while the second largest group - 40 - will be heading north. 20 will be stations in Corozal and 20 in Orange Walk.
