Police Department is Still Short of 4,000 Officers

Did the Minister of Home Affairs miss the mark on his Plan Belize Manifesto goal? When the People’s United Party campaigned for the 2020 general election, they promised to boost the Belize Police Department’s ranks to at least four thousand officers. However, they are still far from reaching that target. Here’s how the minister responded to this observation.

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“I don’t know what you think or how much space we have at the police academy, but we can only facilitate, say, two hundred and twenty-five recruits.”

 

Reporter

“Yeah, but you made the pledge.”

 

Kareem Musa

“Yes, it’s over time.  Have you heard that Plan Belize is a ten-year plan.  Have you heard that yet?  Okay, you are hearing it now.”

 

Reporter

“You all are moving the goalpost.”

 

Kareem Musa

“No, no.  But in the last four years, I can assure you that we’ve had the most recruitments than any other administration and I think our numbers are all the way up to two thousand, six hundred, going up with the next recruit intake that’s coming up in May.  So every year we’ve had at least one, if not two squads coming out from our PTA.”