Corozal Police Hold Community Clinic in Sarteneja Village

Over the weekend, the Corozal Police Formation held a community clinic in Sarteneja Village. The annual activity, headed up by the Community Oriented Policing Unit (COPU), event saw educational displays teaching the public about the work of the police, as well as demonstrations from the police cadet corps. Officer Commanding the Corozal COPU, Corporal Pedro Romero, said that the event was aimed at educating residents, and strengthening their relationship with the police.

Perdo Romero, OC Community Policing, Corozal: “The Corozal police formation, we visit  different villages and try to bring information in regards to the police roles, responsibility and our daily functions. Usually this information do not reach all the way to the remote villages, so we go out of our way and come to the different villages and then show them what the police department is all about, right? It’s sensitizing the people with the different programs we have. For instance, we have booth displays out here from community policing unit. This booth in front of me is our prohibited and illegal items displaying our prohibited and illegal items. Most of the firearms you see here are imitation firearms, however they are still illegal. We are displaying some counterfeit money, which are very common in our community,  different ammunitions,  and drugs, marijuana, and the utensils used for smoking these drugs. The  kids and the public need to be aware of these things that are prohibited and illegal  in their possession. So we need to bring awareness, and that’s the main goal here today. At community policing, we have different programs. We have 11 different programs and one of them to my right you may see cadets. At the Corozal Police Formation we have a total of about 75 cadets from three different groups right now active. In front of you is the Progresso cadets. The cadets we take in youths from the age of eight to seventeen years where we teach them different skills, different life skills including drills, community service, we try to get the better out of these children and keep them busy and in positive activities such as being close to the police and teaching them these different skills.”

Officer Commanding the Corozal Police Formation Superintendent Elroy Carcamo, says that the event is held as a means of bringing the information into remote communities.

Supt. Elroy Carcamo, OC Corozal Police Formation: “It’s the third time it’s happening here.  First of its kind that we are doing in Corozal District as the officer inside of Corozal Police Formation we have sought it very much good to come out to the community and instead of the community coming to the station we go out to them and we try to see how best we can assist. It’s not every time that people can come. And so what happened is that we chose today as a day because we also have our cadets out here that is participating from Sarteneja. It’s a new new group that is coming up and we want to show support. We have the community fair where we have members from the gender based violence unit, we have members from the community policing unit and members from the road policing unit. Road policing was once the traffic and because they deal with more than traffic now they are out here and they are sensitizing the community. We have people from the community coming out and looking at the booth and seeing more or less what they can do to better themselves and better their community. Also we have our cadets out here from Sarteneja and Progresso. Progresso cadets planned and came out here to support the Sarteneja cadets. Progresso cadets is not that old, it’s less than a year in the making but they have come out, they have been working together. And we also have members from our defensive tactics team, the instructors, who will be doing a display for the cadets and for the community, but at the same time they are teaching the cadets as few stances, basic stances, nothing that they will go there and use on people but just to understand”

The event was held at the Sarteneja Almendro Park.