The new ComPol is big on “community policing”
The Police Department gets a new Commissioner of Police – Allen Whylie, who has today officially taken over command of the department from Commissioner David Henderson, who is now the Director of Forensic Services. The change of command for the Police Department was conducted in Belmopan at the National Police Academy, on Thursday, January 10. Whylie, who was the Assistant Commissioner of Police before his promotion, is a veteran police officer who has given 26 years of service and he stands prepared, he said, to take on the challenge of upgrading the type of policing carried out in the Jewel in an effort to restore a sense of peace and security to the nation.
In accepting the job as Police Commissioner, Whylie noted the particular challenges that are being faced in Belize City, and said that bringing the crime situation in the city under control would be a primary focus of his. Whylie expressed the belief that while crime is happening in other areas of the country, the old capital is the battleground. And he will not give up on this fight, nor will he give up hope, he said. Whylie explained that he would be deploying a variety of strategies, and would evaluate and reevaluate results – changing and adapting in an effort to achieve an optimum outcome. The strategies then, will have to be flexible, so that they can adapt to whatever changes they see on the ground, Whylie further stated.
The new Compol spoke on behalf of his entire department when he pledged that: the senior officers and the other members of the Belize Police Department will work tirelessly to ensure peace and safety in the country. He admitted that there are going to be challenges and setbacks in their efforts to do this, but they will triumph due to their commitment, he said. Whylie plans to make changes in the department, but said that the participation of the community will be necessary to ensure successful implementation. He has ordered all police officers to see themselves as community officers. The notion of community will no longer be just a philosophy, but will in fact be implemented through concrete measures that are being planned, said Whylie.
Whylie will face challenges of unprecedented proportions, including the task of investigating a crime that has never been seen before in Belize – a bloody quadruple murder of four men in the George Street area that has cast a shadow of suspicion on certain members of the police in the eyes of some in the George Street community.
On Tuesday, January 8, four men were viciously killed in an apartment on Plues and George Streets, and the residents of George Street are blaming the Police Department’s Gang Suppression Unit for the death of the four men. On the day the bodies were discovered, hostilities toward the police mounted to the point that the angry crowd almost mobbed the police. Police opened fire in the area, in retaliation, to disperse the crowd, after which they (the officers) went into battle ready mode, and began aggressive patrols in the Dean and George Street area. Whylie said that he has the utmost confidence in his officers that they were not involved in the death of the men.
To date the Dean and George Street area is under police control, and no one has yet been arrested for the murders.