Belize Records 89 Homicides in 2024; Crime Rate Discussed at Quarterly CompStat Meeting

Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa along with the Police Commissioner Chester Williams hosted the quarterly CompStat presentation. The presentation focused on the police’s performance as well as the overall crime rate across the country.  For the past year, the murder rate was two more than 2023 with a total of 89 homicides.  In his interview with the media this morning, Minister Musa says it is his hope that in the coming years, Belize would see the murder rate fall below fifty.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “Specifically with the performance of our police department in the second half of 2024. The first half as you would recall we had a sharp increase in the number of domestic murders I believe for the first time in a long time domestic related murders or crimes of jealousy so to speak actually were more, I think 18 in 2024 compared to gang related murders which were 17 in 2014. And so that is of great concern and the importance of a meeting, a session like this with COMPSTAT is not just to review the last quarter of 2024 but all of 2024 to see how much we can better the strategies that we formulate moving into 2025. So a very important session. I’m very grateful like you said Jules the numbers pretty much mirror last year’s numbers in terms of homicides. We always want to keep it below a hundred. This year it might be wishful thinking but one day I want to see it go below 50 murders. I know that we can’t prevent all crimes, especially crimes of passion that the police are not going to be at the scene for something like that but certainly we can see where the second half of 2024 proved to us that peace is possible particularly in the Eastern Division where we saw a remarkable reduction over all not just in homicides but also in major crimes. So that is what we’re utilizing these numbers in creating our strategies for 2025.”

As the CompStat presentation was being made in Belmopan, the UDP Party Leader, Moses Shyne Barrow hosted a press conference saying that the numbers presented by the government and the Police Department are misleading.  According to his count, Barrow says there were over one hundred murders in the past year.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “One of the things that concerns the United Democratic Party is the continued manipulation of statistics by the Minister of Police and his department. When you deal with death it is enough that families lose a loved one, it is enough the devastation and pain that that causes but to deny the justice or at least the pursuit of justice whereas there are many instances that even you the media have conceded are clearly murder but for the Minister of Police to have a better statistical showing they have relegated at least twelve that we can point to, instances of murder are now considered death investigations or the Ministry of Police and the Belize Police Department under the guidance of the Minister of Police, Minister Musa now determines what the status is whether it’s manslaughter or murder when usually that is something the DPP should decide.”

The COMPSTAT meeting serves as a crucial platform for the police department to analyze crime trends, identify areas for improvement, and refine its policing strategies.