Dear National Security Sub Committee Members,

On September 15th, the public was invited to give views and or recommendation on the proposed amendments to the criminal justice and firearms acts.

My view was/is that the proposed amendments are a move in the right direction but that we could (and should) do more to:

• reduce abuse and allegations of abuse (which weakens community police relations and therefore hampers investigations)

• increase convictions rates and

• reduce violent crime.

I attended the meeting in the hope of presenting these 5 recommendations for development through further discussion with your committee:

Firearms and Criminal Justice Law & Policy Recommendations

1. Any suspect detained or intercepted within 7 hours of a shooting incident must be swabbed for gunpowder residue.

   • Gun powder residue can remain on living human skin for up to 6 hours even with washing.

   • Confirmation of residue presence would help to secure convictions.

2. A database must be established in relation to found firearms and ammunition to include comprehensive details including:

   • How the firearm entered the country. With whom? How?

   • The identity of all persons whose prints lifted from the firearm or ammunition

     • This would empower us to reduce gun violence by applying focus to their source.

     • Focusing on the source of firearms will also address the frequent allegations of ‘set ups’ and framing, something not adequately addressed in the proposed amendmendments.

3. Where any firearm or ammunition is found on any premises, the fingerprints of all persons present and/or resident at the premises must be collected and checked against prints found on the firearm or ammunition.

   • This will help to ensure that the right person(s) are charged for the possession of the firearm or ammunition rather than merely the head of the house, lessee, or person who opts to take a fall.

4. Interrogations of suspects and witnesses in firearm cases must be recorded.

   • Such recordings should be admissible in court.

   • This would help to prevent abuse of detainees which deteriorates police community relations as well as impedes convictions.

5. Updates in murder investigations should be required every 3 months by national policy.

   • This can encourage new witnesses to come forward and re-assure families that the investigations are still ongoing, and ensure that more investigations are investigated to a close.

   • This could in particular reduce the penchant for retaliatory violence which reports suggest account for a significant number of murders in Belize.

   • Any investigations without updates for 6 months or more should be re-assigned to a new investigating team.

Unfortunately, differing interpretations of both the standing orders for committee meetings and the public invitation communique prevented us from discussing these at Belize’s National Assembly.

As a alternative, on October 2nd (being celebrated internationally as a ‘Day for Non-Violence‘, I will be conducting a web conference in which these and other crime reduction strategies will be presented for discussion.

I hereby cordially invite your participation.