Five extra FTE’s will be made available for support and the National Detectives will get a special back office, all this to enable detectives to carry out multiple investigations at the same time. Recruitment is to start in September, Dutch National Police Chief Gerard Bouman said in an internal memo to police officers.

 

Bouman recently made a six-day work visit to the Dutch Caribbean. He was in St. Maarten on July 23. After meeting with members of the local Police Force, Bouman said he had left the islands with mixed feelings. Especially the situation in St. Maarten was reason for concern, he said. He specifically mentioned the criminal undermining of society and “extremely alarming” integrity issues.

 

Bouman said it became clear that all Police Departments on the islands are too small to be able to handle all the work. The situation was so severe that the Dutch cabinet made the “far-reaching” decision to combat these problems within the framework of the Kingdom, with St. Maarten being the first priority. The project to reinforce the judicial partners will run at least until the end of 2017.

 

The Dutch Chief of Police explained that it is the intention to send detectives to the Dutch Caribbean to deal with one big case, after which they will return home again. This will, for instance, be done to safeguard detectives’ safety.

 

This is also to prevent that Dutch members of the Kingdom Detective Cooperation Team RST have to deal with re-adaptation problems after a three- to five-year stint on the islands.

 

Bouman said that reducing criminality and undermining in St. Maarten is part of a larger master plan. “That requires fundamentally more money. The aim is to structurally reinforce the Police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the judiciary. They will obtain the qualitative and quantitative impulse needed to make the required clean sweep on all islands, starting with St. Maarten.”

 

This requires a substantial investment. “We’re doing it good, or we’re not doing it,” said Bouman, who stressed that the investment would not go at the expense of the Police budget. The Police Chief said he may be making a follow-up visit in the foreseeable future.