This afternoon, Commissioner of Police Crispin Jeffries addressed the recent spike in crime when he spoke with reporters at the end of a two-hour meeting with representatives of the different media houses. Jeffries says the spike in crime was not unexpected but the police are putting all of its efforts into restoring a sense of safety to the streets and community.
Krispin Jefferies: Commissioner of Police
“We contribute the incidents to the ongoing rivals between young people. We saw a spate of incidents that knew would have had some rivalries. We stepped up our responses by patrols; our intelligence team is meeting as we speak to look at other measures. The information that we have been working with has died off and there have been some other incidents. But we do know that there are some rivalries taking place that we have not yet gotten contact information to respond appropriately. I believe we are responding to the incidents as they occur. I would not say the response in terms or time and speed is high but in terms of being able to preempt we are not getting the level of intelligence or information that we need. That is the incident with the youth died may have been that of an acquaintance. The information coming out of that neighborhood is not sufficiently detailed for us to suggest that it is something that we could have prevented. There is a pattern we are seeing and if one would travel the city at night you would see clandestine activities of young persons in our streets and strange hours; nine, ten and even eleven o’clock, both male and female. Those persons may well be those that are incontrollable or those that are being encouraged. There are those who have hard working parents that may not be able to be where they are at that time to control them. It is a very serious challenge that includes social problems.”
The Commissioner says that the police department is contemplating various initiatives to help deal with the current spike in crimes, including revisiting provisions of the curfew law, conducting a thorough search of certain neighborhoods and soliciting the assistance of social partners who come in contact with designated sections of the population. In the meantime, Commissioner Jeffries says that the community can rest assured that the police department is looking out for their best interest.
Krispin Jefferies: Commissioner of Police
"Based on our statistical analysis it is almost certain that the persons who are injured in incidents are known by their attacker and are sought for days before they are caught and shot at. It is almost, I know my intended victim, and I am waiting for the opportunity to commit the crime. There are so many of those happening that it is difficult to be at the right place at the right time unless there is sufficient prior information or what we refer to as intelligence. The two children on Mahogany Street were innocent bystanders. The indications are that the injuries they received was on the lower parts of their body and it was ricochet. That was when the projectile would have deflected off a wall and grazed one on the top of his or her foot; I think it may have been the female. She got injured on the top and the other one got hit on the ankle. It was unfortunate that the twelve year old and the nine year old got injured. We were looker for a third person but then we understand that the third person was in fact the third person. He is a well know targeted person in that community by other rival groups.”
During today's sit down with media representatives, Commissioner Jeffries released the latest crime statistics, which, as on previous occasions appears to indicate that crime is going down.  Patrick Jones from our News Centre challenged the Commissioner on the perception of his crime stats, when the general sentiment on the streets is that crime is out of control.
Krispin Jefferies: Commissioner of Police
“The truth is the truth. The numbers of incidents are decreasing. It does not take away from the violent ones, it does not take away from the rivalries or the vendettas that have been there going on for some time. There are those that are engineered to divert police resources and attention. So we are in fact seeing a reduction in statistical figures but the rivalry is still high in certain areas. We would particularly note that a lot of it is occurring in certain parts of the Southside of Belize City. I have very little other ways of explaining to the community that we are doing our very best. We put our number out there, we analyze the crime, we look at the patterns and we respond proportionately to what the incidents are and at the same time. We also attempt safety in other areas. We see incidents of violent crimes, murders and shootings occurring and we see robberies. But then there is a wider part of the community that has a consistent police presence for which they can feel assured that a presence will be there. Whenever we make mistakes in those areas that is when we see a flare up of incidents.”
According to latest statistics up until September 28, nine murders were reported bringing the total to 73. This figure does not reflect the murder of 14-year-old Dylan Ayuso and 36-year-old Norman Gillett which occurred over the last two days. Love FM

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