Police Seek to Discourage Crime on Motorbikes

The McFadzean murder, like many others, was carried out by men on motorcycles. Williams informed the media that he has directed his commanders to take strong measures to deter crimes committed by motorcycle riders. He emphasized that commanders have been instructed to “remove the capabilities” of those using motorcycles to evade the police. Additionally, Williams mentioned that they will concentrate on the city’s hot spots to curb such activities.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“Mr. Romero was not able to make it to conference today, but will be communicating with him very shortly and as I have been communicating with him over the weekend as well, making sure that we maintain our strong presence in certain areas of Belize City. And those areas in particular are George Street, the Martins area, and as well as the Port or the Caesar Ridge area. Those are areas of concern for us. We do this without neglecting our responsibility to the other areas of the city because you all know that every area on South Side Belize City does have the potential to have a flare up at any given time. So we have to ensure that while we cover certain areas. We still need to make sure that we have the other areas covered as well. So if it requires that we have to send additional manpower to the city to be able to quell the issue, then we are going to do that. But so far, I believe that Belize City has been kept a bit under control and we are hoping that if we can keep it that way or make it even better moving forward.”

 

Reporter

“Are you concerned with this new MO that has twice been used to target members of the George Street gang, where  they aren’t necessarily in a gang turf, but they’re attacked in vehicles in drive-by shootings?”

 

Chester Williams

“Of course, every incident that has to do with violence we are concerned about. The issue is, as I said to my commanders this morning, that we have to pay keen attention to those gang members who are moving around on motorcycles. They are the problem and I have given them certain tasks this morning in conference. I’m not going to say what the task is, but we have to ensure that we do what we can to eliminate those persons who are using these motorcycles, they go and commit a crime. And when I say eliminate, I don’t mean to take them out, but I mean to remove the capabilities from them to be able to go and do these types of acts. They tend to use motorcycles because it is easy for them to maneuver through the traffic and even through narrow alleys and evade the police easily. So it is something we have been focusing on, but we need to pay more attention to.”