Philipsburg:-If there is one thing that is proven with Operation Trust 2 who began an intense control on the island of St. Maarten is that the St. Maarten Police Force is a failure that is ill-prepared and are not ready to take on the challenge of country St. Maarten. Right now there are three separate groups within the police force, the right, left and center. Something that is affecting the effectiveness and management of the force. While this statement would create confusion since the local police force has been saying they are neglected by the Minister of Justice the truth is the management of the Police Force did not do what was vital by making sure a proper request for their needs is submitted to the Minister or Central Government.
While the Chief of Police did make a request for financing for Safety St. Maarten Dick said that is not a request from the Police Management who are given a task.
Minister of Justice David Dick confirmed that he never received an official request from St. Maarten stating their need instead he has been reading this in the media while local politicians are playing politics with the issue at hand.
Dick said each and every time he is told St. Maarten needs more human resource which he agreed to but he said nothing was done with recruitment even when Chief Police Commissioner Derrick Holiday was in office. "How can you get more manpower if there is no focus on recruitment" he asked.
The former Police Commissioner had taken away recruitment from the recruitment team and gave it Police Commissioner Ademar Doran who did absolutely nothing since 2005 to attract new police officers to the police force. Prior to Doran handling recruitment the team that was in charge for this was visiting high schools as well as career fairs to encourage youngsters to become police officers.
Presently Commissioner of Police Ademar Doran, who is considered to be one of St. Maarten's young, bright and vibrant officers, has hundreds of immigration documents sitting on his desk waiting for his signature but this for some reason is not done. This media house understands that this backlog is creating a set back on the processing of documents for the working class.
Minister of Justice David Dick admitted there is a backlog of about two hundred which he claimed came about due to Doran's constant vacations. However, this media house understands Doran has documents for more than two years on his desk claiming he is waiting on Interpol to check these applicants' criminal records abroad. The Minister however, gave credit to Doran for assisting in sweeping out the corruption within the police force. Dick said it was only since Doran became head of immigration the corruption that was taking place in that department came to light. He also gave the police commissioner credit for making sure St. Maarten receives adequate help for the Operation Trust 2, he said Doran took the initiative to extend their time on St. Maarten since he saw the need to clean up the island. While it is true the island needs to be cleaned up it was stated that the officers that were coming from Curacao was coming to help solve the many crimes that are not being solved by the local police force. One of those is the eight unsolved murders for last year none of which has been solved since the Curacao officers are here. Hopefully this would happen during the extension since Doran is head of the Detective Department and he has first hand knowledge on the murder files.
While it is no old news that Assistant Chief Commissioner of Police Richard Panneflek is leaving as early as Monday even though he has no "Lands Besluit" Minister of Justice David Dick said he does not have to issue such a document for Panneflek to officially leave the force since the two of them has a signed agreement along with confirmation from the Island Government of St. Maarten. Dick said Doran will be the person in charge with the assistance of Police Coach Ronald Dongor who took office over 8 months now.
The Minister said he is confident that the police force will move in the right direction under the leadership of Doran even though he acknowledged the police commissioner would be having a lot on his plate as well as a lot of unfinished business.
Dick who was obviously angered when these questions were posed to him said when Holiday was removed from office the two local police commissioners did nothing to better the police force. He said these men especially Panneflek spent their time on seeing whom he would be appointing to replace Holiday. Dick said these officers only created more damage to the local police force rather than good and he felt it is more than time to get rid of the "trouble makers" whom he did not identify so that the force can advance. However, the officers who are not speaking out loud said the local police force they worked so hard to build is going backwards and there is a downfall ahead. Several of senior officers are disgusted and are almost ready to call it quits with the force this media house understands.
The Minister felt that the police should work diligently on solving their internal problems since that is the only way they would move forward. He said Operation Trust 2 showed the St. Maarten Police Force is incapable of maintaining law and order and they would indeed need outside help and the only person within the force he said saw this need is police commissioner Ademar Doran.
SMN News was not able to secure an interview with Doran since he was in meetings most of the day yesterday. Hopefully the new top cop will give some explanations on the reason he has such a backlog on his immigration desk.
