A number of concerns police officers called our newsroom today after the outbreak of department wide rumors that allowances will be cut in the new fiscal year.
What is an allowance? Well to Belize's thousand plus police department it's almost their bread and butter. Out of district officers collect allowances for housing, detectives collect allowances for their plain clothes, dragon unit officers collect allowances for their hardships. For most officers it can add up to over a $100 a month and for some as much as $300 a month. That's a nice piece of change, and the officers we spoke to say that to lose it would be a deathblow.
But according to the commissioner of police - they have no need to worry. COMPOL Jose Zetina today told us that the rumor is absolutely untrue. He stressed that there is no plan to cut any allowances in any way. In fact the COMPOL says he has asked the ministry for allowances to be increased.