Murder Figures Up Compared to Same Period Last Year

Coming on the heels of the state of emergency that was extended to ninety days, the Comstat figures show that murders are on the rise. Today, the Commissioner of Police, Chester Willams and the Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa met with reporters to explain how they intend to turn those numbers around within the ninety-day period. Murders for 2024 stood at fifty-seven at the end of June, compared to forty-five at the same time last year. News Five’s Marion Ali spoke with both officials and filed this report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

Major crimes for the second quarter of 2024 are reported to be on a decline, but the overall number of murders are higher than this same time in 2023. Today during the Belize Police Department’s Comstat Conference, Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams said these numbers are higher than last year’s, but still lower than previous years.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“The numbers for this year’s second quarter are reflecting a 22% reduction in overall major crime. But of concern to me is an increase in murders. Murders are up by 13, when compared to the same period last year. Last year, around this time we had 45 and this year, at the end of the second quarter we have 58.”

 

 

 

 

Commanders will be tasked to review their crime-fighting strategies to see how they can enhance those efforts. The ComPol said that the Belize District remains the area where most of these murders are taking place, particularly because of gang violence. This is followed closely by the Cayo District. Even though major crimes are lower than they were previously, Williams says this is inclusive of robberies, burglaries and thefts.

 

Chester Williams

“If your house is broken into and an item value $1 is stolen, it will be recorded.”

 

Reporter

And it will be included in major crimes?

 

Chester Williams

“It will be included, yes. If you are robbed of an item that is valued 5 cents it will be included in the major crime category. The only one that we have costs attached to is theft because theft, per se is not really a violent crime. Many of the thefts that we have are basically instances where people would have left their things carelessly and someone would just come and pick it up.”

 

The murder rate in 2024 is a far cry from the eighty-seven total number of homicides that Belize recorded last year. The Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa believes that with stringent measures over the next few months during the state of emergency, those numbers can go down.

 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“We anticipate over the next two, three months, we should have a decrease in the number of murders but we are not letting up. We are applying the pressure at all the pressure points to ensure that we have the most efficient police strategies being employed. That is essentially the reason and purpose for strategic sessions like this, the ComStat that meets every quarter, for us not only to review the data that we have gathered but to translate that into making the necessary adjustments on the ground in terms of our operations.”

 

 

 

We asked Musa what the plan will be if at the end of the ninety-day SOE the murder rate begins to climb again. He said perhaps it would then be time to amend the Constitution to allow for a gang-detention period.

 

Kareem Musa

“I think there is high time for us to have a discussion, a consultation period even because I don’t think that the State of Emergency was designed for this type of gang interventions. So we could start having the discussion of amending legislation, of even amending the constitution for a gang detention period as opposed to utilising the State of Emergency because as you rightly said, there are just a very small handful of young men that insist on carrying out this type of criminal activity. They do not want to change.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.