You didn't need 20/20 vision to see the long line outside of the police department today, though. Hopefuls from all over the country spent the last few days applying for their police record so that they can then apply to join the ranks of the police force. Today, though, that line was almost as long as the one outside BPMS last week.
But, according to the Minister of Home Affairs, there are plenty of highly qualified people in those long lines looking to use their skills to serve the country.
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister, Home Affairs and New Growth Industries
"Over the last couple of weeks, there has beena lot of excitement because of this opportunity that has risen, we have over 40,000 Belizeans who are currently unemployed at the moment and what we are seeing now, because we only have remember 225 spaces available, so we're seeing in very large numbers, young people coming out, highly qualified young people, some even with Bachelor's Degrees, applying to become police officers so while it is a challenging time for us in Belize it is a great opportunity for the Belize Police Department to tap into our most qualified individuals out there with very high degrees who are applying so i think we'll have a very high caliber intake 95 coming up shortly."
"We already had it in our budget for this year to have another additional intake of 170 officers and so the additional budget was only to find 50 or so more, a budget for 50 or more officers to be joining the force so it's not a lot that we had to look for in addition to so that made it a lot easier. I don't think I could have gotten away taking to Cabinet 225 and asking the government to find that money at this time."
The PUP's Plan Belize Manifesto states that it wants to increase the ranks of the police up to 4,000 officers; it is currently at 2,100.
