And in other news...Senator Glenfield Dennison says he will be suing the police department after he felt he was unlawfully detained and publicly humiliated during a tense encounter with officers on Saturday at the Taylor's Alley checkpoint. We reported on it last night but Dennison explained that after officers checked his license and insurance, one of them allegedly snatched his driver's license from his hand and began recording his information despite his objections. The situation escalated when officers requested additional documents, including the vehicle title, and called for backup after he began recording the interaction on his phone. According to Dennison, multiple officers surrounded his vehicle in the State of Emergency zone, leaving him feeling intimidated, embarrassed, and fearful as bystanders watched the confrontation unfold. He argued that police exceeded their lawful authority by continuing to detain him without justification for requesting his vehicle title, something that is not required by the law unless they have reasonable suspicion. He spoke with us today.
Glenfield Dennison, Union Senator
"I just want the people of Belize to understand that whenever you're engaging at a traffic checkpoint, the question of your freedom of movement is live. Your constitutional freedom of movement is currently being breached at every checkpoint. The question is always whether or not the breach is justifiable, whether it's reasonable in the circumstances. You have to comply with the license and the insurance and the driver's license because the law
is very clear that you must produce those when you are asked by any police officer in uniform. So comply with those things, but that's where the line of reasonableness is drawn, unless they see some crime occurring. So in the interaction, if you're not wearing your seatbelt and they observe that, then it's reasonable for them to continue the detention for you to get a ticket for the seatbelt or to have that sort of discussion. If they smell the aroma of marijuana in your car, then they have a reason to pull your car over to do a search. It's all a question about whether they had a particular justification in law to now request further detention of you. And I say that the requesting of my documents to record it is an unjustifiable use of that breach of my constitutional right, and so is requesting the title."
Dennison says that what happened to him shows a greater trend of ignorance on behalf of the police department. For the issue to de-escalate, one of the senior officers recognized that he was a Senator and Dennison believes that this shows what can happen to the average Belizean. When we asked him if he feared the worst, he said this:
Glenfield Dennison, Union Senator
"I'm sure it would have I'm sure they would have had me on the cement They would have put that officer was so aggressive. I'm sure he would have pulled me out of the car That's what I was waiting to face being pulled out of the car and planted on the ground. He was ready to detain me And I was okay with that, you know I was okay with that like at that point. I was okay Like just the way you understand because really and truly like this nonsense has to stop."
Reporter
"Do you believe that the Belize Police Department some members of it then the younger members per se that they're not equipped to deal with certain issues Especially when it comes to traffic violations?"
Glenfield Dennison, Union Senator
"I think I think there's just a ignorance of the of The laws and the regulations and how they're to apply and the difference in the regimes for the thing that they can require right, I Have it on good authority that they're being told that training school see there's a lot that says you're supposed to have the title So you could ask them for you and I want to suggest respectfully that that's a wrong application of that section Especially when you look at the how the regulations make it clear on when you're supposed to produce certain things so the chapter 231 that speaks about the Insurance certificate is explicit that you are required to produce it when asked by any officer right in the chapter 230 If you are required to show your driver's license You must produce it that's explicitly stated There's a there's a requirement to have a license and then there's a requirement to produce one when asked same with the insurance There's a requirement to have insurance and there's a requirement to produce one when asked right The drafters of those regulations and Law are very clear on the things that are being required to be produced Certificate of title is not one of those things Why would you have a certificate of title in the car at all times? If I had to humor a guess the law says if you don't have The license plate remember you have a requirement to register a car right proof of that is a certificate of registration What we call title The law says if you don't have your license plates, it's a presumption that your car is not registered So if police At a checkpoint see somebody without license plate by all means ask for the title Ask for the title that a person have to show that the car is registered ask for it if you look at the insurance sticker and there's no license plate number on the displayed on the insurance sticker ask for the title so you can verify that this car is The VIN number is the same VIN number as the vehicle has the same VIN number and the title ask for it in those circumstances if you have Information that a car was stolen that fits the description that you of the vehicle in front of you Traveling the direction that that this you have information the car was traveling in ask the driver to produce the title."
