Yesterday you heard from the Ombudsman on the non-renewal of his contract. Today was his final day in office and its likely we won't be getting a 2025 report any time soon. But in his 2024 report, which was published in September, he noted that almost half of the complaints his office received were about the police department. We asked Gilbert Swaso yesterday about the nature of these complaints.
Gilbert Swaso, Ombudsman
"Several of these complaints, if I can recall, came through the Belize Central Prison and the police department and there were allegations of abuse of power and the abuse of process. Certainly, it is demonstrating again that there are officers within those respective departments who do not fully understand what their roles and responsibilities are to people or in the case of the Belize Central Prison to the inmates and every inmate continue to have rights as well so when those rights are violated and anyone makes any complaint it is the responsibility of the ombudsman to decide once due diligence has been done and the validity of those complaints are ascertained, to investigate where there is the need to investigate."
