Squad Ninety-Seven Underwent Seven Months of Rigorous Training

At today’s police passing out ceremony, Doctor Priscilla Brown, the Dean of Academics at the National Police Training Academy, spoke about the caliber of training Squad Ninety-Seven received. She noted that each new officer received instructions that meet regional and international requirements. We also heard from Abel Navarrete, one of the members of Squad Ninety-Seven. Here is what they had to say.

 

Dr. Priscilla Brown, Dean of Academics, National Police Training Academy

“Our training curriculum and the field training officer program represent the quality standards and competency for exemplary law enforcement. I have monitored instructional delivery to ensure that every instructor is taught to regional and international requirements. Therefore, it is an honor to confer you, squad ninety-seven, on the rights, privileges, responsibilities, and obligations thereunto. This conferral includes a commitment to duty and upholding high moral standards. You are reminded that you are expected to demonstrate unwavering commitment and exemplary service to the country and people of Belize.”

 

Abel Navarrete, Police Officer, Squad Ninety-Seven

“As Theodore Roosevelt once said, it is hard to fail but it is worst to never to have tried to succeed. It is the same sentiment that led all our fellow companions of squad ninety-seven in through those gates, into the National Police Training Academy on Sunday September seventeenth, 2023. Two hundred and thirty-nine men and women ready to lay anything on the line, leaving family, friends and loved ones behind to commence a seven-month training in hopes of pursuing a noble profession as an officer of the law. We all entered this facility as civilians and the transformation to becoming a police officer has been a vigorous and timely process. We were pushed physically and mentally beyond our limits.”