PHILIPSBURG:--- The Court of First Instance gave the Minister of Justice 6 weeks to regulate the remuneration of 12 police officers. The decision was handed down on May 8th, 2017.
The 12 police officers were represented by their colleague Lyndon Lewis who had his own problems with the Justice Ministry some years ago when he gave a statement against a former police officer that was convicted of manslaughter.
The cases were handled on August 22nd, 2016.
The officers took the Governor of St. Maarten to court for issuing a Landsbesluit in 2016 recognizing the 12 officers as Police Officers retroactive to January 1st, 2015. The officers were taken into employment since July 25th 2011 as BAVPOLERS who would eventually receive police training. However, the 12 officers did not get the required training but were placed in the police force to work as full-fledged police officers, one being part of the arrest team of KPSM.
Based on the cases submitted by the officers they were given a decree on March 4th 2012 where they were recognized as police cadets as they complete their BPO training but the Ministry never provided the much needed training to the officers.
Government then issued a second decree (LB) in 2015 which states that since the officers were not given the training they ought to have gotten but served as full fledge police officers, they would be promoted from police cadets to police officers as of January 1st 2015, while acknowledging that the officers worked for three years as police officers satisfactorily. The 12 officers did not agree with the promotion as such appealed.
In the ruling handed down by the court the judge ordered that the police officers receive all remuneration that are owed to them because government in its decree stated they worked as police officers since 2012 and not since 2015. Besides that the judge ordered that the officers be promoted to police sergeants as 2015.
The officers are:
1. Cornelius Henderson
2. Kenesha Peterson
3. Samantha Theodore
4. Jeriesha Jones
5. Tamara Jeffry
6. Teddy Charlie
7. Tamycha Arrindell
8. Jeremiah Daniel
9. Natasha Brandy
10. Sheron Richardson
11. Ashley Roumou
12. Sabina Sabroche.
