Community Policing Strengthened with New Lord’s Bank Substation

A new chapter in community policing began today in Lord’s Bank village, where residents gathered to witness the opening of a long-awaited police substation. The move comes in response to rising concerns over crime in the area, and officials say the station will bring stronger law enforcement presence to the community. With six officers stationed, community leaders say this opening marks a significant step toward restoring peace of mind for families who have been calling for greater protection.

 

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs

“We wanna bring the services of the police department closer to our communities, so we are decentralizing the services from the police department. We’ll have a lot of substations being built around the country where we can bring services directly closer to the community. It is very important that a community works with the police department and poli- police department works with the community. We cannot do this on our own. We’re always looking for a partnership, and who better to partner with than the communities that we directly serve?”

 

Britney Gordon

“How many officers will be stationed here, and can you talk about the donation of the motorcycle as well?”

 

Oscar Mira

“So there will be six officers here and one supervisor. They will man the police station on a twenty-four hours basis. There’s also a donation of a motorcycle from F.T. Williams and Associates. He was very gracious enough when I went to see him to donate a mobility so that the police that are working here can also move around and do their own patrols in this area, so we’re grateful for that as well.” 

 

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Area Representative, Belize Rural Central

“We have been seeing a rise in crime in the Ladyville and Lords Bank communities, and it’s very concerning. So not only does the physical presence of this building give us some confidence and some hope in the cooperation between the police and the community, but it’s a really tangible representation of that cooperation because we will be relying on the police a lot as we go forward, there was an attempted rape the other day. We have had some burglaries. There’s a lot happening in addition to traffic accidents, so I feel very good that we were even introduced to the team of six officers who will be here led by Corporal Andrews, who is a Lords Bank young man himself.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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