Police Week 2026 Opens With Focus on Community Engagement and Public Trust

Police officers across Belize have embarked on a week of celebration, reflection, and community engagement as Police Week 2026 officially got underway yesterday.  The annual observance opened with church services held across the country, with officers stationed in Belize City gathering at St. Ignatius Church to mark the beginning of the week-long series of activities. The event brought together members of the police department in a spirit of unity and service as they reflected on their role in protecting and serving the nation.  Running from June 14 through to June 20, Police Week is being observed under the leadership of Commissioner of Police Dr. Richard Rosado and focuses on strengthening ties between law enforcement and the communities they serve.  Senior Superintendent Dehanne Augustine, appearing on the Love Morning Show today, explained that the week has been carefully planned to promote positive engagement between officers and the public while recognizing the contributions of police personnel throughout the country.

Diana Augustine, Senior Superintendent of Police: “It just goes back again to our mission statement “Working in partnership with our community to prevent crime, enhance safety and improve quality of life.” It’s just us finding that one week where we could give recognition to members of the community, members of the police department who have gone beyond the call of duty to continue to do exactly what the mission statement talks about. So it’s something that we continuously do, but specifically for that week we’d like to do that. And that also for that week, it goes further too because at the end of the day, you recognize police officers for their service, their years of service within the police department. So there will be two award ceremonies.”

Among the activities scheduled are community meet-and-greet sessions, visits to senior citizens, outreach to local businesses, and an Open Day that will allow members of the public to interact directly with various units of the Belize Police Department and learn more about their operations.  Police Week will also feature an awards ceremony recognizing officers who have distinguished themselves through exceptional service, dedication, and professionalism in the execution of their duties.  A major highlight of the week will be Friday’s National Police Sports Day, which will bring together officers from across the country for friendly competition and camaraderie. According to Corporal Shakeem Franklin, the sporting event is the culmination of months of preparation, with regional eliminations having taken place throughout April and May to determine which teams and athletes would advance to the national competition.

Shahid Franklin, Corporal, Belize Police Department: “These sporting activities took place in the month of April, started from April and May, late April into May. We have regional elimination. So we started off with some football competition, volleyball and basketball. So that was the South region, the West region, Eastern division and the Northern region. We had an elimination game. There’s many police officers, so we had to do some of the games simultaneously when it comes to the sports. The winners of all those competition from every region will represent their division at the national sports day at Marion Jones on the 19th of June. So when it comes to sports, our stakeholders, our community, we get to come along together as one. We know that with sports bring peace. We can see peace through sports. As even when we went to the church service, they weren’t aware that we were having a sports day but one of the prayers they had there was for sports. So we bring together people from different walks of life. Even a police officer, we don’t see each other every day so it’s good to see each other, interact with each other. And it’s very important for our mental health our physical health as police officers. So sports is very important. And we appreciate the opportunity for they give us to play sports. Yes, it’s a competition. They are a team, like I said, there are winners from each region and they will face off here for the nationals.”

Police Week concludes on Saturday with an Awards Ceremony.