Surveillance Cameras Boost Conviction Rates, Says Minister Musa

Conviction rates are going up; that’s what Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa told the media this week and he says that surveillance cameras have played a major role in that success. Speaking at the inauguration of fifty new cameras in Belize City yesterday, Musa said that the cameras have been a valuable source of evidence in court that has led to more successful prosecutions. Musa says that he believes adding more cameras will bring the conviction rates up even higher. 

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “Yeah we’ve already been seeing a trend in terms of cases that are now coming before the courts. We are seeing a trend of convictions again we have to emphasize that in some instances where we do not have the third eye, the camera footage and we rely exclusively on eye witnesses it does become an issue, those are the very challenging cases. We don’t see that as prevalent in other parts of the country. We’re able to get convictions in other parts of the country but for some reason when it comes to Belize City it is difficult but at the same time you can expect to see greater convictions as a result of these additional cameras that are now in spaces that were not covered before.”

With the addition of the new cameras, which were funded by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration CABEI, the Belize Police Department now has a network of over two hundred and twenty cameras. The first cameras were installed back in February 2008.