Two weeks ago, we told you how the Police Department's Eastern Division Precinct 1 Headquarters will be moved from its current location on Euphrates Avenue in Belize City.
The building where Precinct 1 is currently located, belongs to the family of the retired politician, Anthony "Boots" Martinez". In the past, the lease agreement has been consistently criticized as a questionable arrangement for the enrichment of the former UDP Minister. But, the leadership of the police department says that the time has come to find somewhere else to relocate. That's because the current building on Euphrates Avenue is simply too small to house all the services that a police precinct should provide.
Yesterday, we caught up with the Police Commissioner at the site of what is to become the new Precinct 1 headquarters, on the corner of King and West Streets. He stopped in to see the progress of the renovations on the new building. We asked the ComPol to discuss the business arrangement that makes this change possible and, here's what he told us:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police "We are hoping to relocate from the current precinct 1 building which on Euphratis avenue to this building hopefully within the next month and a half. One of the reasons why we are relocating is the fact that one the building we currently are in is too small, it cannot accommodate all the offices we want to have. Two, it has an issue when there is heavy rain, it begins to flood and officers have to be working in unhealthy conditions in some instances water to their knees and so we believe that this building is going to serve us well in terms of one, giving us more office space, two the health condition of our officers during rainy weather is going to be improved tremendously and I saw the previous interview you had with the area rep asking why we don't use the Mesop precinct, the one corner Dean and George Street and the answer to that is the simple fact that the building we have at corner Dean and George Street is too small, it's exceedingly small, that could only house one office. It cannot accommodate a whole precinct, remember, a precinct is a complete police station. We have CIB, we have traffic, we have domestic violence, we have place for the SIMS officer, you have space for the OC, the deputy OC, the executive duty officer, so it must have adequate office spaces to be able to house whatever services that the police should offer to that community. And so that little building we have there is exceedingly small and could not accommodate for the purpose that we wanted and so I believe that this is adequate. It is being leased from the proprietor and one of the things I said to the proprietor is that we do not want a building that is going to cost more than the current location we are at and with that, they agreed that the price for renting is going to be exactly what we are paying at our current location. The renovation is not being done by us, it is being done by the proprietors."
The police building located at the corner of Dean and West Streets is also being renovated to become the traffic section of the new Precinct 1 headquarters.
