Transport Department Tightens Road Safety with Police Support

The Transport Department is tightening the reins on road safety. They’ve just wrapped up a specialized training workshop aimed at boosting enforcement skills among transport personnel. This wasn’t done in isolation, the Ministry of Transport teamed up with the Belize Police Department to make it happen. The goal is to build stronger collaboration and improve enforcement to make our highways safer for everyone.

 

Chester Williams, C.E.O., Ministry of Transport

“What we have here are not just our national traffic personnel, but we also have traffic officers from the various municipalities because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that every traffic officer in this country, whether you’re a police, national traffic or municipal traffic, that you are all trained in the ability to be able to perform your duties. Gone are the days when you apply for a job, you are accepted for the job, you’re given a uniform, and you’re told to go and do the job. The question then ask, how must I do the job? Am I being given the tools to do the job? Do I have the knowledge to do the job? Do I have the capabilities to do the job? So you are given a uniform and you’re given powers to execute a certain function, but no one took the time to train you, giving you the knowledge that you need to be able to perform that function that you are now being given. But when things goes wrong, the first to be blamed, are you. Oh, the traffic officers are doing nothing. This the happen, that the happened.. They don’t know to issue tickets, they ticket they issued, badly issued. They cannot identify offenses. That’s not your fault. Administration must always ensure that they provide the tools for employees to be able to perform their duties. Where that is not done, then administration would’ve failed you. We don’t want to continue down that path where we fail our employees. We want to have a department that is reputable, one that is known for excellence, where excellence become habitual. And not just an act or randomly executed,”