A contentious debate over police use of force has emerged in Belize following a recent arrest in the western town of Unitedville, where an officer employed a controversial chokehold maneuver to detain a suspect. The incident, which unfolded in a region grappling with rising violent crime and rampant drug trade activity, has thrown a years-old unfulfilled policy pledge back into the public spotlight.
Back in 2021, then-Police Commissioner Chester Williams publicly announced that the department would reevaluate its policies on chokehold use by officers. But five years after that commitment, no formal written ban on the restraint tactic has been implemented, Assistant Superintendent Stacy Smith, a staff officer with the Belize Police Department, confirmed in an interview with local media.
The arrest at the center of the debate has already led to formal charges for the suspect, who is accused of multiple offenses including grievous harm after the arresting officer suffered a broken arm during the confrontation. Smith contextualized the incident by noting that Unitedville and the broader western Belize region have been plagued by a surge in criminal activity this year, including two high-profile double murders, driven by widespread illegal drug trade operations that local law enforcement is actively working to curtail.
When pressed directly on whether the Belize Police Department formally sanctions the use of chokeholds by officers in the line of duty, Smith offered a nuanced, guarded response. She noted that all officers receive standardized training in defensive tactics designed to guide their response to dangerous, volatile encounters. Despite this training, she emphasized that officers must make split-second decisions in unpredictable situations, with the core legal standard remaining that any force used must be proportionate and justified under the country’s Criminal Code.
Smith also affirmed that police officers, just like ordinary civilians, hold the legal right to self-defense when facing imminent harm during an interaction. She stopped short of explicitly endorsing chokehold as an approved departmental technique, but also did not condemn the officer’s specific action in the Unitedville case, noting that any use of force that falls within the bounds of justifiable harm is legally guided. Local media has confirmed that it will continue following developments in the incident and any potential policy changes to the department’s use of force rules moving forward.