Local News

Members of the police department are today participating in a customer service and public relations workshop at the House of Culture on Regent Street in Belize City.  The two day workshop opened yesterday and Sergeant Karla Gamboa from the Deputy Tourism Police Unit further enlightened us on the training

KARLA GAMBOA, Sergeant (Deputy Tourism Police Unit)

“The workshop is being facilitated by Ms. Hunter and is sponsored by Belize Tourist Board.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“And why is it important for the members of the Police Department to be in this workshop?”

KARLA GAMBOA, Sergeant (Deputy Tourism Police Unit)

“It is important because we are always dealing with the public at large and we have some police officers who does not know how to deal with certain situation and will have wrong approach to deal with different cases which will reflect bad on the Police Department if they deal with situations negatively.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“So how many members are participating?”

KARLA GAMBOA, Sergeant (Deputy Tourism Police Unit)

“We have thirty eight attendees at this course.  One includes a statistician and she works at the Tourist village when there is a crew ship day, on crew ship days.  So we have seventy three strengths and the other officers will be taking this same training next week Thursdays and Fridays.  So it will cover all tourism police officers.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“Will this be the first time you’re holding a training like this one?”

KARLA GAMBOA, Sergeant (Deputy Tourism Police Unit)

“This is the second but this is the more intense training.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“How do you select the officers that are in training today?”

KARLA GAMBOA, Sergeant (Deputy Tourism Police Unit)

“The officers that are in training are all police officers.  As you know the industry is a very important and fragile industry and working t the tourist village, we are at the front line.  We are the ones that the tourists will ask the first question to when they want to make sure that they are making the right decision.  So with that we need to have this skill developed in us that we know how to deal with a situation as it arises.  I know that the police officers here will definitely exercise what they learned and I know that they will become and they will improve on their approach and appearances dealing with situations.”  

Gamboa says that the department might seriously contemplate offering this course to other members of the police department so they can also apply the skills with locals.