And, on paper, one way of increasing vigilance when it comes to human trafficking is to have more police officers on the ground. Of course, that poses its own problems because it is well known that police often work as special duty security as those are bars where girls and women are held in silent bondage, these enforcing the bar owner's illegal possession of their documents.
That's a "whole other story", and not so much part of our next story about the 200 plus new recruits currently at the training academy. And, if you're wondering how a broke government is going to pay all these new salaries, Musa says it's compensation for natural attrition in the ranks:
Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs "What is important to be mindful of is that in 2015, our police population stood at 2,600 officers. Even then, we were undermanned, understaffed, when it comes to officers. Since 2015, there has been a lot of attrition, a lot of our officers have actually retired, and our actual population stands at now 2,100 so that's a difference of 500 officers that we don't have on the streets of Belize. So it's high time that we had a recruitment, an intake, and that is why we made the decision last year in Cabinet, and as you can see with the crime situation right now in Belize, it is absolutely essential that we get more officers on the streets."
