Today Police Minister John Saldivar continued his working tour of the Eastern Division by visiting the newly formed southside formation. It's his first visit after this - the largest policing division in the country was reconfigured a month ago. He told Monica Bodden what he's looking for:...
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"I am very impressed with the organization and reorganization that I see happening on the south side. as well as I was yesterday when I visited the north side, I get the very distinct impression that this new configuration is going to do exactly what we want it to do in terms of the crime situation in Belize City. We're trying to put senior officers in charge of a smaller areas so that they can focus their attention and resources in those smaller areas. So whereas the entire eastern division previously was commanded by an assistant commissioner of police, now we have three divisions that are being commanded by assistant commissioners of police and of senior superintendents of police. So we believe that putting senior officers in a smaller area is going to yield the desired results."
Monica Bodden
"And lastly, transport remains the key issue for police. The Rangers given by the US state department for urban patrols in 2012 are just about expired. Will there be another infusion of transport?"
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"Well transportation is always a problem. There are times when we are able to get assistance, there are times when we are able to use our own resources to get more vehicles. Yes we are looking to see how we can get more from our internal resources. But we've also made an application to the US Government through the CARSI program for us to get some help there. And we are confident that we are going to get some help there."
Saldivar concluded his tour at 3:30 today. But, does the new southside commander have a firm enough grip on his area? Yesterday violence flared again in the Jane Usher Boulevard area when two young men were shot. Saldivar said he remains confident that violence the Southside is on a downward trend:..
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of National Security
"With that shooting yesterday, we had a little bit over a two week break where we had no major incident. So it does signal to me that the outreach is working, we can't expect to move from where we were to zero in a short space of time. But I am very confident that continuing the kind of outreach that Mr. Williams and the others on the north side are doing, that we will be able to have an effect."
