As you've seen in our interviews so far, the commissioner had on his ceremonial dress today and that's because he was truly the top cop, leading the Commissioners from across Central America and the Caribbean, along with numerous policing organizations in their annual Commissioner's Conference.
Jomarie Lanza has this report on what was tops on the cop's agenda:
After The presidency of the Commission of Chiefs and Directors of Police of Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Colombia, was handed over to Belize, the members gathered today at the Biltmore for its annual Commissioners' conference, under the leadership of Belize's Commissioner, Chester Williams.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"First and foremost let me say that we are extremely ecstatic to be hosting this international conference for the first time. We are having the 28th ordinary general assembly of the chiefs and directors of the police force, Central America and the Caribbean, Colombia and Mexico. And we are even more grateful that we currently hold the presidency of the commission and so as the president is my duty to ensure that I provide good leadership and guidance to this esteemed commission."
Each country contributes towards combating multinational crime in their region, and by maintaining these partnerships, together they can share experiences, strategies and approaches towards mitigating crime in their respective countries.
Now that Belize has been elected to chair the Organization, the commissioner told us today how he plans to expand their membership in hopes of improving citizen security.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"And so as we assemble today and tomorrow to discuss our achievements over the past year and to plan the roadmap for 2024 in terms of how we will do policing in the Central America Regional. It is important that we realize that we cannot just police the region with just the police organizations that are based within the central America in Colombia, Mexican and Caribbean region, but also there needs to be collaboration between our commission and the ACCP. As you would know that the Caribbean stands right next to central America and so it is on the right that we incorporate the Caribbean into our discussions and that's the reason why we're seeing for the first time in the history of the commission we have a representative from the ACCP in attendance and he will be doing a presentation."
"I'm trying to see how I can bring other organizations into our commission or to be a part of our commission so that we will be able to enhance the Citizen security not just within our respective countries, but also within the Caribbean on the Central American regions."
The Minister of Home Affairs spoke about how these linkages and shared discourse play a crucial role in addressing drug related crimes, something that is commonly faced across Central America and the Caribbean.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"This is where you receive a ultra holistic approach to crime in the sense that it is all of these countries coming together, to strategize to share information to share intelligence, and to come up with a strategy for the region in combating, not just transnational crime crime within our respective jurisdictions whatever form that may take. As you saw today, we even had representation from Haiti which is Again a very historic, they have not attended a conference in many areas, so it is truly welcoming to see their presence here today, as well as the commissioner of police from the Bahamas."
"As I mentioned in my opening remarks, all of our jurisdictions are prone to flights, not just taking off, but landing within our respective jurisdictions and so that is certainly one of the main points that are going to be highlighted today and it's going to be addressed in the form of a strategy by this court of commissioners."
A total of 12 countries and 15 police organizations were present at today's meeting, with the exception of Guatemala and Panama.
