3 weeks ago
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Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa yesterday continued his national tour of police stations, making a critical stop at Belize City’s Raccoon Street Police Station, one of the most deteriorated police facilities in the country. Accompanied by the Commissioner of Police and his Chief Executive Officer, Musa met with senior formation commanders and frontline officers to assess conditions and hear firsthand about the challenges faced by law enforcement personnel. The Raccoon Street station, built in the early 1990s, has suffered from a leaking roof for nearly three decades. The issue, which began just a year after the building was constructed, has steadily worsened, resulting in water damage that affects not only the third floor but also offices on the second and first floors. Despite repeated patchwork over the years, the problem has become severe, causing mold, mildew, and even rodent infestations. Love News spoke with Musa who explained the urgent renovations needed.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs: “This roof has been leaking since the 1990’s, the year after it was built, and so it has been a recurring issues. We have done a lot of patchwork and I’m talking the previous administration not our administration and we’re trying to see what is the best possible solution because this building currently houses approximately 300 staff members, some 200 police personnel, administrative staff, the 911 center and our accounts department and so it’s an essential part of our entire servicing, our police servicing of the community here on the south side of Belize City and so we had some personnel from MIDH come in to do an assessment because at some point it was said that the building is condemned but that is not in fact the repot that we’re getting. That there are remedial works that can take place but of course the fundamental issue with this building is the roofing. And so we are getting a quotation, we have submitted actually quotations I think about three weeks ago to the Ministry of Finance or there to be constructed an actual roof on top of this building because there’s none it’s an actual cement roof but to build an actual canopy roof to prevent the type of leakage that we’ve been seeing that doesn’t affect only the third floor but it affects the second floor and even some of the offices on the first floor. Once that roofing issue has been repaired then we will look at the internal repairs to the building, the office spaces.”
The Raccoon Street station houses approximately 300 personnel, including officers, administrative staff, the 911 emergency call center, and the department’s accounts unit.
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