BELIZE CITY, Mon. Aug. 16, 2021– Last Friday, the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, told local media that police officers were given at least a month and two weeks to get vaccinated before the department started to implement the regulations laid out in Statutory Instrument (SI) 74.

Since then, said Commissioner Williams, at least 30 officers have been sent home for not presenting a vaccination card or a recently administered negative PCR test. This is in line with (SI) 74, which mandates that frontline workers either get vaccinated or be subject to mandatory bi-weekly testing.

COMPOL Williams said that while he can understand the line of reasoning presented by the attorney for the Police Association, Richard “Dickie” Bradley, he believes it would be hypocritical to have officers in his department enforcing Covid-19-related protocol, including the provisions laid out in (SI) 74, if those officers themselves are not in compliance with such laws.

“As 1st of August came, the police were busy in the Altun Ha area, where they were enforcing the regulations. Now, it cannot be that we as enforcers would be saying to people, you must abide by the law, but we ourselves are not in compliance. It is hypocritical to me, and so it is with that spirit that I emphasize to officers the need to be vaccinated, and if you don’t want to be vaccinated, then you must do the test and produce that negative test every two weeks before you come to work,” Commissioner Williams said.
The COMPOL has stated that neither he nor the Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa, has the legal authority to delay the enforcement of the law.

“So yes, once officers come to work, they are unvaccinated, they don’t have a negative test, they will be sent home and will be marked absent and will be dealt with in accordance with our disciplinary regulations. That is what the law says. Until the law is challenged and the court should deem the law to be null and void, then, but until that comes, which I don’t think will happen, we continue to do what the law states we must do,” Commissioner Williams said.

He informed local reporters that at this time, of the almost 2,200 police officers within the ranks of the force, approximately 1,800 have at least started the vaccination process, leaving about 400 officers unvaccinated.

Commissioner Williams said that he intends to bring those officers together for yet another sensitization session with a healthcare professional.