National Crime Observatory Reports Decrease in Major Crimes Across Belize

All major crimes across the country for the first six months of this year are down when compared to the same time last year, according to the National Crime Observatory. The statistics show that heinous crimes are down for this year but other crimes like robbery are up. The Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, weighed in on the statistics today and says while he is pleased there is much work left to be done. The ComPol also stated that while the facts show crime is on the decrease, the Leader of the Opposition continues to say otherwise. 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Don’t tell that to the Leader of the Opposition he has a different view. And just to correct you, major crime overall is down. When we compared this year’s figure to last year, it is down but where you’ll see it appears to be up is because this year we are comparing reports for which court action were requested as well as those for which court action were not requested. Last year’s statistics was only court action report. So if we put together the aggregate of court action and non-court action reports the number of reports so far this year is down compared to last year. So overall, major crime is down. As much as the Leader of the Opposition is saying that he can reduce crime by half, maybe he is even committing half of the crime that’s why he’ll reduce it by half if he becomes prime minister. But don’t let nobody play politics with crime or let nobody try to fool the public that they have the answer to crime. I think that the strategy we have in place right now with the LIU, the All of Government approach, is working. Yes there is more that needs to be done and we’re trying to get those other things done. We now have the new leader of LIU installed and she’s coordinating with the different organizations to make sure that we come together and look at the other areas that we need to focus on to make sure that we can address the issue of crime. But again, no matter what we do, there is always going to be crime. Certainly, we can do more to manage the crime situation better and that is exactly what we’re doing.”