In the past two weeks, we’ve seen him at the BDF, the Coast Guard, and today, National Security Minister Carlos Perdomo was at the biggest police station in the country: Eastern Division on Queen Street. It’s at the epicenter of the country’s crime capital – and today Perdomo told us how that giving the community a greater sense of safety has a lot to do with making the department more decent.
Carlos Perdomo, Minister of National Security
“We need to bring back integrity to the Police Force and that in my three weeks here I have heard about the rogue cops and the not so good police men and women and that we will do everything in our power to get rid of them with the help of other police officers and with the help of the community.”
That’s the message newly appointed Minister of National Security Carlos Perdomo delivered to over two hundred police men and women at the Eastern Division on Queen Street. The visit is part of Minister Perdomo’s ongoing tour since his official appointment.
Carlos Perdomo,
“Jackie, I also told them that they are a very important part of our democratic society, that they did a wonderful job during the election, that they did a reasonably good job during the December holidays and all in all they are a fundamental part of our society and we need to help them around but we need to upgrade, we need to bring back openness and integrity.”
He has been on the job for only two weeks but Perdomo’s appointment came at a time when crime is on the increase. From January fifteenth to February fourteenth there have been seventeen murders countrywide. Nine of those killings occurred in Belize City. Perdomo acknowledges that it is going to take a joint police and community effort to stop the bloodshed. It is an appeal that he personally plans to make when he meets with the general public.
Carlos Perdomo,
“In the next few weeks I will be coming to the community to the different sectors, to the different ministries so that we can come up with a really wonderful global, if you want to call it like that, a Belizean plan because everybody needs to be involved. The police have a large role to play, yes, but the community also has to be on our side.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Do you see significant changes taking place within the police in where some of your senior command officers are concerned?
Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police
“Well there has been a speculation out there. Certainly there will be rotation of senior officers, as the rotation is usually two years, and certainly
there will be rotations in times to come.”
Like the transfer of Sinquest Martinez who will no longer be in charge of Crimes Investigation in Belmopan but head Major Crimes in Belize City.
Gerald Westby,
“He has done a great job in Belmopan. He is an officer now and we want him to come and use his expertise and supervise these guys because sometimes they are out there, they get carried away and mislead and so we want to ensure that we have proper supervision.”
Then there are controversial police officers like Senior Supt. Chester Williams who has had his share of bad press. As part of the internal clean up, will he remain in Belize City as Assistant Commander of Eastern Division?
Gerald Westby,
“He has been in Belize City for many years and like other officers for career development, professional development, rotations will be made and more than likely he would be rotated out of the city if that is what we want to do.”
We do not know when all the changes will be made but Police Commissioner Gerald Westby says they are forging ahead with a renewed energy to change for better and that’s why the Minister’s tour started with the Patrol Branch.
Gerald Westby,
“The proactive patrol is so critical to people out there, we want them to feel how important they are the Minister has his own style, he likes to get engaged, involved and that is good for the Police Department.”
In other police news, investigators in Belmopan have not yet brought charges against the two young men they detained in connection with the murder of twenty two-year-old Mirna Sanabria in Cotton Tree Village. They continue to look for the third gunman who is believed to be from Ontario Village in the Cayo District. The suspect is suffering from a chop wound to the hand inflicted in self-defense by the victim’s father Horacio Sanabria Sr.
