Carnival Safety is Law Enforcement’s Top Priority
Calbert Flowers
According to Senior Superintendent Calbert Flowers, specialized units, including the GI-3, will be on patrol. There will also be vehicular checkpoints at various locations across the city.
Sr. Supt. Calbert Flowers, Operations Office, B.P.D.
“We will be rolling out our road policing unit across the country. So again, we ask drivers and users of the road to be extremely cautious, as we will be having different checkpoints and highway patrols on the different highways and various checkpoints within the different towns and villages, but especially in Belize City. As well, we have these celebrations, these different activities. Traffic is one of our biggest concerns. We ask, especially for the carnival and the j’ouvert, that owners of motor vehicles be really mindful of where they are parking because parking a vehicle is a big obstruction to us. We have our police tow truck that will be in Belize City, in particular and it will be driving the route and any vehicle obstructing the free flow of traffic will be towed away and the payment will be the responsibility of the owner. So we ask, again, for the owners of motor vehicles to work along with us. As it relates to the carnival j’ouvert, we ask that we do not loiter, we do not hang out on these bridges. We’ll have police officers along the route, as well as the different operational units in different areas of responsibility and they will be tasked to target people who are loitering, people doing public drinking, especially in pint bottles. We ask that you refrain from drinking your beverages in pint bottles. We ask that you use plastic cups. So again, our police officers will be alert and we’ll be looking for these things. We have our strike teams that will be targeting different people. We have our intelligence team at the police department that has been feeding us information and we are ready and on alert, ready to strike if needs be, any of these criminal elements that believe that they will be out here to disrupt our September celebrations. The Belize Police Department will be out here ready and able to defend and protect the law-abiding citizens so that we can all have a safe and happy Tenth celebration this weekend.”
