Cayo Businesspeople Say They Are Concerned About Crime

The administration and medical staff at the San Ignacio Town Hospital are not the only ones in that community that have expressed concerns about the increase in criminal activity. After his meeting with the hospital administration, Police Commissioner Chester Williams held a meeting with the businesspeople from that area. They turned out in numbers, along with residents, to share their thoughts and suggestions on how to address the problem. Cayo North East Area Representative, Orlando Habet, also attended the event, and he told News Five’s Marion Ali that Cabinet had just discussed the issue the same day and had taken the first steps to curbing the crime situation in the once peaceful twin towns. Here’s that report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

The meeting with the members of the Cayo business community ended in the night with a variety of concerns, suggestions, and expectations. Police Commissioner Chester Williams said it was important to get those thoughts to see how they could allay the fear that some residents and businesspeople could be experiencing.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“I brought my team with me. I have Commander of Operations, Mr. Grinage. I have Mr. Gamboa, who is the Commander of S.P.U. I have Mr. Bart Jones, who is a legal officer, and we also have the new Deputy Commander of the Western Region, Mr. Crispin Castillo, and Mr. Franco is also a part of the meetings. It is important for us to hear what are these concerns, and then we’ll make sure that whatever policing plan we’re putting in place, have in place, it is adjusted to be able to address the concerns of the business community and not just the business community but the wider community on a whole.”

 

 

There were quite a few concerns and suggestions from the persons who attended the event. Jian Li spoke of the concerns that the Asian community in the twin towns have and he says that they have lost interest in the police department.

 

Jian Li, Spokesperson, Asian business community, Cayo

“They were concerns over the crime rate, especially with the incident with the previous Chinese guy that has passed away – been killed – we have lost interest in the police department because four to five businesses have been robbed already and they have no result, no result in whatsoever. We want to discuss how can we actually implement a better solution for San Ignacio and Santa Elena and the urban areas and the villages in the Cayo District.”

 

 

 

Li says that the Asian community is not pleased with the way the San Ignacio Police Department has handled the crimes that have occurred. Now, a community that used to donate freely to the formation is contemplating a whole new approach to giving back to the police.

 

 

 

 

 

Jian Li

“That’s what we’re discussing right now – that what if we donate and they don’t do much work?  What would be the result? So what we are discussing is that whosoever participates in capturing the attacker or the robber or the killer, they will be rewarded as long as he posted in the social media or in the mainstream media in Belize and we see that it’s approved, then we will approve a reward for the participants with the police.”

 

 

 

Marion Ali

“So the individual officer, not the department or the branch will be rewarded?”

 

Jian Li

“Not the branch, just the individual, or any individuals that participated.”

 

Li expressed hope that the police in Cayo will also conduct more traffic checkpoints and zero in on motorcycle drivers and passengers since recent crimes have been committed by people on motorbikes. Shelmarie Smith works with the San Ignacio Town Hall, but on Tuesday evening, she spoke as a concerned resident.

 

 

Shelmarie Smith, Concerned resident

“People here in San Ignacio and Santa Elena are really and truly concerned about the crimes that are being committed here in the Twin Towns. And we’re trying to see how we can work together with the police to bring these people to justice. It’s very sad to see that our people here are being killed for no reason at all, or because they are working hard. And these criminals are just coming to just take away their daily lives like that because of an amount of money or something to that effect. It’s not fair. We could sleep with our doors unlocked. Now we have to be closing burglar bars and all that. So I believe that it’s just criminals coming from different areas to our town. So we need to install those police checkpoints at all times and have them there 24/7. There’s 100 of them or 400 of them. There’s 40,000 of us. So we have to get together and pull as a community to fight these crimes and that’s the only way it can be solved.”

 

Cayo North East Area Representative, Orlando Habet, also attended the event and assured the gathering that, coming out of Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the concerns would be addressed in a timely manner.

 

Orlando Habet, Area Representative, Cayo North East

“San Ignacio and Santa Elena being the second largest municipality needs to have more police officers. And as a matter of fact, we understand that it has less police officers than Belmopan, being a larger municipality. So we were assured that would be fixed. The minister of police was adamant in that he will ensure that his officers do right by San Ignacio, Santa Elena, and the surrounding communities. But I also think that not only in terms of the number of police officers, because that will also increase when they build the new police station in Santa Elena. But also to see how they can get more equipment, vehicles, especially so that they can do more patrols and be able to respond to calls from the public as soon as possible.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.