BELIZE CITY – The Belize Police Department has successfully restored full operational capacity to its critical Crime Information Management System (CIMS), concluding a nearly two-month period of significantly limited functionality. The technical disruption originated from administrative delays in processing an outstanding annual software maintenance fee.
Rear Admiral Elton Bennett, Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Enterprise, provided official confirmation to News 5 regarding the system’s complete restoration. Bennett clarified that the technical complications emerged specifically after the belated settlement of a $186,000 Belize Dollar (approximately $93,000 USD) mandatory annual fee for software licensing and support services.
“Technicians are currently engaged in comprehensive efforts to return the system to full 100% operational status,” Bennett stated during his briefing. He emphasized that despite the severe technical limitations experienced over recent weeks, core police operations remained uncompromised throughout the duration of the system impairment.
The CEO provided crucial context regarding operational adaptations during the outage: “Throughout this period of reduced system capacity, the Belize Police Department maintained access to critical information databases. The primary impact was operational efficiency rather than functional paralysis, with data retrieval processes requiring substantially more time and intermediary steps.”
Bennett further explained that the technical constraints necessitated a modified workflow where individual police stations lost direct access privileges, requiring them to submit data requests through central IT personnel who served as intermediaries for database queries. This procedural workaround, while functional, considerably slowed routine information retrieval processes for frontline officers across the nation.
The restoration of CIMS to full functionality marks a significant return to normalcy for Belize’s law enforcement operations, eliminating the previously necessary bureaucratic layers that hampered efficient data access during the technical disruption.