Local News

Recently the Belize Police Department received a handsome donation of vehicles and equipment from the US Government.  Today it was the Government of the Republic of China, Taiwan that came through with another donation to bolster the Department’s communications capability.  It came in the form of sixteen handheld radios, worth thirty thousand US dollars.  Consular Henry Fan of the Taiwanese Embassy, says that the Police Department has been challenged with the crime wave, but the Embassy hopes that the gift will help in that fight. 

HENRY FAN, Consular of Taiwanese Embassy

“People have a very strict demand to the police department but I think that they have done a very good job and they have worked very hard to try and make Belize a safer place for people to live and for children to grow up.  So I think as a very staunch and very long time ally of police we are very honoured and very pleased to try and help a little bit in Belize’s efforts.  So with this donation a sixteen sets of mobile radio to the police department we hope that we can strengthen the capacity of Belize when they are working very hard to improve the environment and the safety of Belize people.  So this mobile radio is very useful and very facilitated when police officer doing their operation, combat of crime so we hope with this donation it’s just a little bit of help.”

While the communications will help, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Elodio Aragon, says that the Department is severely lacking in communications equipment.

ELODIO ARAGON, Assistant Commissioner of Police

“These radios are not the ordinary radios you find on the streets of Belize.  That’s why when you look at sixteen radios for $30,000 US you may wonder they are very expensive.  The fact is that these are digital radios and presently they operate both on analogue and a digital frequency.  What is happening right now is that the police department is looking forward to the future where we will have our digital system.  When that comes on stream, it is not there as yet, but as soon as that comes on stream these radios will assist us in case they are lost we will be able to kill these radios.  Presently, right now when it comes to the accountability we do have our equipment room and these radios have to be handed in everyday and they are handed out likewise via our diary.  So we have good accountability to ensure that we keep these radios.  We don’t have a lot of radios right now but the radios we do have, I haven’t gotten a report of a radio being stolen or lost for quite some time now.  Ideally I would say if we could get a few more of these radios, maybe fifty radios more, would go a long way in to assist us at Eastern Division and you must bear in mind Eastern Division does not only include the city alone, it include San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Ladyville, Hattiville and so there’s always a need for more radios.”

The radios will be distributed for use at the Eastern Division.  They complement the US government’s donation of vehicles, which incidentally, were not outfitted with radios.