Police to Increase Security at Sporting Events After Gang Leader’s Murder

The murder of gang figure Brandon Baptist at a public sporting event has led the Belize Police Department to implement stricter measures with sports organizers. On Friday night, Baptist was shot dead at a football match at the Marion Jones Sporting Complex. The game was highly anticipated and attended by dozens of people but there was a noticeable lack of police presence. Reports suggest there were no more than three cops at the event to police a large crowd. So, what led to the lack of cops at the match, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams says he’s not sure. Earlier today, he explained that while he was not aware of the game, he has moved to ensure further events, particularly involving gang figures, have adequate security. 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “We are seeing that there is a trend where people are putting together sporting activities and I would say in good faith to be able to bring rivaling groups together as a way of doing intervention through sports. But instead of applying to the Commissioner of Police for security, they find their own police officers and they get those police officers to provide security for them. And many a times the level of security that they are getting for these events is not adequate. There is no way on earth would we have allowed three police officers to work a game of such magnitude where they’re lone gang members. So the fact that there is this shortcut needs to be eliminated and I have said to commanders that if it is that they encounter any such event and there is inadequate security there or they have not applied to the commander on the grounds or to the Commissioner of Police that they must bring the event to a stop until they can get adequate police to work these events. Because of what transpired at Marion Jones on Friday night, we know that the FFB game between Port FC and I think Progresso FC was supposed to take place on Sunday but I had advised the President of FFB for us to postpone yesterday’s game to give us some time to be able to deal with what took place on Friday. Again, it’s not because we don’t think that we could have handled it, but most of out officers are engaged in either the investigation of the Friday night incident or doing operations in the Martins area and other areas to avert any retaliation. So we would not have been able to provide adequate security for that game. So in light of that, the president agreed to postpone the game until sometime.”

Williams noted that there is an issue with organizers independently contracting police officers without the department’s knowledge that needs to be addressed. 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “The officers who would have gotten the call to work the event ought to have said to the organizers “I cannot work this event without you seeking permission first from the commissioner or the local commander.” Because you don’t have to come to me. A game of such nature that is within Eastern Division, the organizers could have gone to Mr. Romero and say to him, “we’re having this basketball game at so and so place we’re applying for security to work the event.” And Mr. Romero would be in a position to approve and would tell them, your request is approved and this is the amount of police that you will be required to pay for this event. So what happens is that because certainly his response would be, nothing less than 10 police. They don’t want to pay for 10 police. So they would go behind him and go to the officers on the lower level officers to get them to work for them and then they just get three. So you compare paying for 10 and paying for three. So they go with that, which is totally wrong, because then the officers then would commit a breach of discipline for engaging in a special duty without prior approval from the Commissioner of Police or his designate which in this case would be Mr. Romero. So the officers who were called to go and work had an obligation to have reported the matter upwards and send the people to go and apply at the proper authority for the police officers to work.”

Williams says he urges organizers of events to contact the adequate authorities to request the presence of Belize.