ComPol Says Murder Numbers on a Decrease

Today, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams shared some encouraging news with reporters: the number of murders in 2024 is trending down. Although the year started with a significant spike compared to the end of 2023 and was generally higher than the entire year 2023, the Belize Police Department managed to bring the number of murders down to double digits for the first time in over a decade. Williams credited much of this success to the hard work done behind the scenes by Nuri Mohammed and his intervention program. Their efforts are making a real difference in reducing violence and improving safety in Belize. 

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“We continue to do our best in fighting crime fighting crime and make the people of this country safe. Like you rightly said, we have seen that the murder numbers are trending  down even though we had a good year last year. 2024 so far, it’s going well for us.  While we do celebrate the accomplishment I have to give thanks to those persons who are very instrumental in what we have been doing. And at the forefront of that is Brother [Muhammad] Nuri and [Raymond] “Footie” Gongora. Two individuals whom I have passed to meet twice weekly with those persons who are under the SOE. And you would know that One of the things that affected us is that when the SOE was, would normally be over, there is no follow-up with the guys. And so we find that very quickly they would go back to doing the things that would have landed them in prison under the SOE. And so what we did this time was that we got the team of Brother [Muhammad] Nuri and [Raymond] “Footie” Gongora. And on occasions I would join them, I would meet these guys twice weekly to see what are some of the issues that confronts them and to provide some semblance of guidance. And this is a continuation to what they did while they were in prison, as, as a part of this. So we, we had Nuri going into the prison twice a week to meet with them. And we also had the prison administration doing the journey to freedom program with them while they were there. And so now that they’re out, we just try to have that continuity working with them. And then we also have the LIU that which continue to do what they can in providing some sense of employment to these young men in different areas where they resides. And then of course the  efforts of the police patrolling these areas, making sure that we enforce the law, particularly the quality of life offenses, preventing the loitering, the public drinking and so forth. All of these are things that are leading to what we are seeing now in the reduction in crime across the country.”