PHILIPSBURG:--- As part of its ongoing efforts to engage positively with Sint Maarten's youth, the Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) has visited several schools over the past few weeks to connect with students, raise awareness, and promote education.

On January 28, 2026, officers from the KPSM Traffic Department visited Sister Magda Primary School. During this visit, officers shared important information on traffic rules, general road safety, and helped prepare students for their upcoming traffic examinations.

KPSM believes that early education and positive interaction are key to building responsible road users and strengthening trust between the police and the community.

KPSM takes this opportunity to thank the management of Sister Magda Primary School and the officers who participated in these meaningful engagements with the youth.

PHILIPSBURG:--- On Wednesday, 28 and Thursday, 29 January, police forces, chain partners, and training institutes gathered in Curaçao for the annual Training Conference. The two-day conference focused on how to organize a sustainable, professional, and regionally aligned education and development system for law enforcement.
The conference emphasized the importance of clearly identifying training needs and setting long-term priorities. On the first day, the Platform of Training Coordinators Caribbean (POC) discussed both content-related and organizational themes, including qualification dossiers, Basic Police Training (BPO), Integrated Professional Training (IBT), innovation, twinning, accreditation, and governance.
BPO is the foundational training program for new police officers, providing essential knowledge and skills to perform police duties. IBT is the mandatory ongoing training for serving officers, designed to maintain and improve operational skills such as use of force, arrest techniques, and professional readiness.
These discussions resulted in a series of decision cards, which were presented on the second day to the College of Police Chiefs (CvK) for further discussion and decision-making.
The conference demonstrated significant progress in recent years in professionalism and regional cooperation. Examples include joint regional training for IBT instructors currently taking place in the Netherlands and the development of a structured approach to qualification dossiers. Sexual Offences serves as a pilot dossier, and this approach will also be applied to BPO in 2026.
Challenges remain, particularly in ensuring sustainable follow-up within the police forces. This includes decisions on joint IBT policy, regional exchange, and how to keep IBT instructors adequately trained after completing their initial education. While the decision cards led to constructive and, at times, in-depth discussions, not all items received final approval. Where agreement was not reached, it became clear that further research is needed to support decision-making.
The role of the RST within the POC is twofold. On the one hand, the RST is responsible for training and maintaining expertise within the police forces in the areas assigned to it, namely technical support, digital support, and interception. On the other hand, the RST funds specific training programs for police forces, aligned with the tasks and priorities of the embedded teams. From both roles, training activities are planned for 2026, with attention to multi-year continuity.
Using the conference outcomes—both the decisions made and the discussions held—the POC will continue to define the multi-year training needs. Together with the training institutes, efforts will also focus on further strengthening cooperation, with a strong emphasis on long-term sustainability.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) advises the public that persistent and ongoing illegal parking along Rhine Road in the Maho area and at the entrance of Beacon Hill Road has forced the police to take decisive enforcement action. Despite repeated complaints, warnings, and preventive measures implemented over an extended period, traffic violations at this location have persisted, creating serious disruptions to traffic flow and posing risks to road users and pedestrians.
Over the past several weeks, KPSM has received multiple requests and complaints regarding illegal parking along Rhine Road leading into the Maho area, as well as at the entrance of Beacon Hill Road. Community officers assigned to the Maho area have, over time, implemented several measures to discourage drivers from parking on sidewalks.
In collaboration with concerned parents and community members, concrete dividers were placed to prevent vehicles from parking on pedestrian walkways. However, drivers have adjusted their behavior and have begun parking on the roadway itself. This has narrowed the entrance to Beacon Hill Road and the roundabout leading into Maho, significantly affecting traffic flow in this heavily used area.
As the preventive measures proved ineffective, KPSM transitioned to active enforcement. On Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026, police officers conducted enforcement at the location, during which fines were issued, and several vehicles were towed for traffic violations. These actions were taken in accordance with the clearly posted no-stopping/no-parking signs present in the area.
KPSM strongly urges residents, tour operators (including large and small buses), ATV rental companies, and visitors to refrain from parking along Rhine Road in Maho and at the entrance of Beacon Hill Road. Illegal parking in these locations continues to obstruct traffic flow and compromise public safety.

Due to continued non-compliance, the police are forced to divert personnel from already limited operational resources to address this behavior—resources that could otherwise be deployed to manage other critical policing duties.
KPSM calls on all road users to cooperate and comply with traffic regulations to ensure a safe, orderly, and accessible traffic environment in the Maho area.

KPSM Press Release.

PHILIPSBURG:---  The recent confirmation that the Soul Beach Music Festival has officially relocated to Curaçao for its 2026 edition has sparked renewed calls for financial accountability from Member of Parliament (MP) Egbert Doran. While the festival’s departure follows a “homecoming” year in St. Maarten, the MP is raising concerns that the move leaves behind more questions than answers regarding the management of public funds.

MP Doran noted that while he welcomes new initiatives and believes in the potential of the “Orange Economy” to diversify the island’s tourism product, such events must be anchored in proper planning and fiscal transparency to be sustainable. He suggested that the current situation is a direct result of a lack of a clear roadmap.

“We are now in February 2026, yet the 2025 Budget Amendment, the document in which the expenditure for Soul Beach should have been reflected according to the government, has still not come to Parliament,” MP Doran stated. “We are essentially being asked to trust a financial process that remains invisible to the people’s representatives, while the event has already packed up and moved to a neighboring island.”

A primary point of contention for the MP is the status of the Social Economic Council (SER) report. While the report has been completed, the MP pointed out that the Minister has failed to present it to Parliament as promised.

“The Minister promised that a meeting on the SER report would take place as far back as November 2025,” Doran explained. “To date, that report has not been presented to Parliament by the Minister, and no meeting has been called. We are operating in a data vacuum where the only measure of success we have is a verbal assurance that the country ‘made millions.’”

Further adding to the frustration, MP Doran highlighted that when Members of Parliament requested an overview of all advice and documents pertaining to Soul Beach, they were denied access under the guise of “confidentiality.” He noted that this excuse is particularly troubling given that Parliament has a well established confidential route, often involving the Secretariat, through which MPs can legally and securely view sensitive documents to fulfill their oversight duties.

The MP argued that if the government’s over $700,000 investment was as successful as claimed, the data should be readily available for public scrutiny. Specifically, MP Doran is seeking a summarized analysis of:

• Visitor and Hospitality Metrics: A side by side comparison of airport passenger arrivals and hotel occupancy rates for May 2024 versus May 2025 to determine how much “new” traffic was actually generated.
• Fiscal Returns: A clear look at Turnover Tax (TOT) and other government revenues collected during the festival period in 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.

“These checks and balances are what give a true indication of success and can be used to make future events more successful,” the MP stated. “Without this data, we are just spending public funds on a feeling. The festival has moved on to Curaçao, but the responsibility for accountability remains here. We cannot continue to spend public funds on the promise of success without ever seeing the receipts. The people deserve to see the data that justifies the investment.”