La Savane: --- The French Gendarmes and Dutch Police held a meeting at the La Savane Outpost where they discussed a joint operation between the two sides for the holiday season.
This year the special police operation was named "Operation Trust" for the second year that normally begins mid December to eliminate criminal activities during the holiday season. Captain Loic Barras said Operation Trust is initiated by his Dutch counterpart and the idea is to make sure there are enough men in blue on the streets during the holiday season. Operation Trust already began two weeks ago since Police on Dutch St. Maarten is hell bent on cleaning up the streets of St. Maarten and reducing crime.
Barras said he has decided to have more gendarmes with the help of the Territorial Police in close proximity of business places. His ideas is to see if they can avoid hold ups and robberies at the end of the day during the holiday season, already the gendarmes had some controls in place but this year they are going to work hand in hand with the Dutch side that already began this operation. Baras said he intend to use more of his men during this period which would begin on December 15 on the French side of the island.
Assistant Chief of Police Richard Panneflek said yesterday's meeting was just a continuation of their regular meetings with the intention to see how both sides can exchange cooperation which would be in the best interest of the community of St. Maarten. The top cop said St. Maarten/St. Martin is one island with one people despite the fact they have two different judicial systems. Panneflek said the intention is to bring safety and security to both sides of the island and not one side over the other.
Panneflek said the joint cooperation is their strength if they are to tackle crime. He said Operation Trust will be extended to the French sides to attack criminals who believe they can escape police. He said that they are fighting hard to keep the island safe despite they have limited human resources and other means. "When manpower is limited on both ends the best thing to do is to join forces and those criminals who believe they can commit crimes on the Dutch side and run to the French side would not escape the law and vice versa.
