Downtown Belize city was the safest place you could be this morning as 530 women in the security forces marched in a circuit around downtown Belize City, for the opening ceremony of women's month. Jomarie Lanza was there, and here's her report.
They flooded the streets of downtown Belize City this morning, a regimented drill march, the women of the BDF, Police and Coast guard proudly wearing their service uniforms - stepping sharply through the city's downtown.
Our women in the security forces surely made a statement to mark the opening of women's month, that their numbers and roles are many even in the most challenging and male dominated fields.
Richard Rosado, Commissioner of Police
"I am happy to say that the Belize police department we have a told strength of 2451 out of those 2451 817 are females so approximately 33% of our strengthen are females and I also want to add that in terms of ratio wise, men to men, female to female we have a higher percentage of females that are supervisors when compared to men."
"In all our intake the percentage of women has always been at least 25% and in promotion we have an equal amount in promotions in terms of supervisors in terms of the different ranks with the male counterpart."
"We have a number of activities throughout the month of march including the recognition symposium the retreat so there is a number of activities we have planned for women's month to show our appreciation for all the women in our security forces."
It's a first for the Belize Police department, and Deputy Commissioner Sandra Bowden was impressed with how they were able to organize such a large event, bringing in officers from all corners of the country to participate.
Sandra Bowden, Deputy Commissioner of Police
"I had a discussion with the commissioner late last year regarding our usual women's month celebrations and the idea came that as opposed to celebrating differently from the years before we thought to come together the 3 security forces in Belize to be able to celebrate as one big group."
"So we had the participation of a lot of people from across the police department, the Belize defense force and the Belize coast guard. Coming together to be able to organize this event and make sure that it becomes. Reality for us today."
"We have about 70 Belize defense force women, we have about 50 Belize coast guard members and we have about 530 police officers parading with us today."
She says she hopes to send a strong message to the public that women can succeed and excel in law enforcement while balancing the many other roles they carry.
Sandra Bowden, Deputy Commissioner of Police
"It is very essential for our country and for the world to know that we as women play a vital role in the security of our country, we have participated in all of the events that our different organizations have to offer to our country and we come together to celebrate this year knowing that when we celebrate together when we participate together that we are stronger."
"There are many challenges for us as women in law enforcement, particularly in policing, the main challenge or one of the main challenges being that as mothers we have our role to play and then we still have to come out and do what the men do."
"So we had our church service yesterday across the country where all of the organizations participated we are having this event today, the parade and this event today and we will also be conducting our regional symposium throughout the month."
