Mission

The Belize Crime Observatory: supporting improvements in citizen security by informing, interpreting, and influencing our understanding of crime The Belize Crime Observatory is the national service for informing, interpreting, and influencing our understanding of crime and supporting the promotion of public safety and citizen security:

• Informing – a central hub for the collation, use and publishing of information relating to crime
• Interpreting – an analysis and research service that examines and interprets data relating to crime
• Influencing – a central depository of accessible information and analytical findings on crime for the purpose of influencing decision‐making on strategies and policies relating to policing and public safety, and promoting improvements in citizen security.

Function

The primary aim of the Belize Crime Observatory (BCO) is to foster the development of public policies that address public safety and national security issues through the collection, analysis and dissemination of quality, timely and multidimensional data on crime and violence trends in the country. Additionally, the BCO in Belize will become the official point of reference at the national, regional and international level for comprehensive, relevant, and accurate data on crime and violence in Belize, including statistical and analytical information, as well as, primary and secondary research. National depository of data relating to crime – the Observatory will act as a national depository for the secure storage of data relating to crime. Data stored by the Observatory will be collected from relevant source providers (e.g., the Belize Police), and processed to ensure it is fit for purpose to support the creation of statistical outputs and analysis.

• National crime analysis service – the Observatory will provide the main national service on crime analysis. Overtime, the Observatory will become recognized as the national centre of excellence for crime analysis, supporting the direction and guidance of crime analysis performed by other officers from other ministries and the police, and act as the main point of contact for facilitating academic research on crime in Belize.
• National statistical publication service on crime – the Observatory will act as the national provider on crime statistics in Belize. National statistics on crime will be published in a format that allows for public access and comparison to other countries. Statistics will also be published in a format that allows for crime trends to be observed and for comparisons to be made between areas within Belize.
• Analysis repository – the Observatory will act as a repository for findings from the analysis of crime and the gathering of criminal intelligence. It is anticipated that analysis reports that will be generated by the Observatory (and from those departments most closely connected to the Observatory) will relate to helping better understand crime issues in Belize (e.g., robbery), the activities of individuals and groups (e.g., gang crime), and strategic priorities (to inform local and national strategic plans for reducing crime and improving public safety). To help support transparency and raise public awareness of the Observatory’s important functions, the Observatory will publicly publish short briefing notes that describe analytical findings.

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