Squad 97 Hits the Streets for Cleanup Campaign

There is a new recruit squad presently at the National Police Training Academy in Belmopan.  The cadets are completing a program that sees them learning the theoretical and practical aspects of policing.  Earlier today, they were out in the field assisting various communities in Belize City with cleaning up their neighborhoods.  Here’s News Five’s Isani Cayetano.

 

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

This morning in Belize City, teams of recruits from the Belize Police Department descended on various communities.  The men and women who have enlisted in the law enforcement agency did not hit the streets to make arrests or restore order.  Instead, they were in Lake Independence and other neighborhoods to lead a cleanup campaign, as well as to familiarize themselves with residents in those areas.

 

Insp. Ryan Timmons, Regional Training Officer, Eastern Division

“This is the Recruit Squad 97.  Recruit Squad 97 is over two hundred plus recruits who are currently in training.  Right now, we have over about sixty plus recruits doing community service today.  They are giving back to the community that they serve.”

 

Among them is Renisha Martinez.  She comes from a family of police officers.

 

Renisha Martinez, Police Recruit

“I had two biggest role models in my life that were police officers and also growing up into a family home as that, it was inspiring to me.  I always wanted to be a police officer and actually, to get this opportunity to be here is a blessing.”

 

Today, she is with her fellow recruits and together they are beautifying neighborhoods across the city that are considered hotspots.  They are also taking the opportunity to meet the people who live there.

 

Renisha Martinez

“We are actually doing some house to house meet and greet.  We are doing this for the purpose itself which is to build a closer relationship with the people, also with ourselves, the law enforcement agency, also to protect and to provide safety for the people.  So it’s also a good initiative to give back to our country and to be very thankful for everyone around.”

 

Also in Recruit Squad 97 is Rakeem Dawson.  His reason for enlisting is to remove the stigma that is attached to the Belize Police Department.  He boasts that his recruit intake is the most educated of the cadets taken in by the department.

 

Rakeem Dawson, Police Recruit

“There is this negative cloud over the police department.  I know the entire country knows what that negative cloud is.  I have a passion for serving my community and I believe that this is one way that I could give back to my community by helping to protect and serve. Some of the values that I’ve learned since joining Squad 97.  We are young, energized and [Squad] 97 is actually one of the most educated squads to date.  Most persons have an associates or even a bachelor’s degree in this squad.  So the value here is to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the police department through two hundred and thirty-four recruits strong.”

 

 

According to Inspector Ryan Timmons, the objective is for the new recruits to learn interpersonal skills by engaging with members of the community at different levels.

 

Ryan Timmons

“Community interaction, community participation, community inclusion.  We are going towards the area of community service, that they are giving back to the community that they serve.”

 

 

Isani Cayetano

“For an initiative like this, Inspector Timmons, one would want to think that perhaps you guys could have gotten some of the residents from this area to help to cleanup their neighborhood as well.”

 

 

 

 

Ryan Timmons

“Yes, and I need to mention that this is an initiative that we are partnered with the Belize City Council’s Sanitation Department, the community, the recruits, and other police officers. We were in the community from yesterday talking about what we are doing.  Everyone sees it as something positive, like what I am saying, community interaction.  When they are finished with the cleanup, they will be doing a meet and greet, going door to door, talking to members and residents of the neighborhood getting their feedback direct and concerns that they have for the police.”

 

Isani Cayetano for News Five.