PHILIPSBURG:--- On Thursday, January 19, 2023, the Ministers of Justice of Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten, who met in Aruba in connection with the Four-party Judicial Consultation also referred to as the JVO (Justitieel Vierpartijen Overleg), was invited by the Board of Police Chiefs (College van Korpschefs) of the Caribbean countries in the Kingdom for an extensive presentation and discussion on the activities of the Board.
The Board of Police Chiefs is a partnership between the police forces of Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, and the BES islands represented by their respective Chiefs of Police and supported by the National Police of the Netherlands, in which the forces closely collaborate on and discuss matters of common interest. The Board is chaired by each of its members in turn under a rotating Chairmanship. The current Chair is the Chief of Police of Sint Maarten Mr. Carl John.
During the presentation and discussion, Minister Tjon, Minister Hato, and Minister Richardson were updated on the activities that have been carried out in recent months at the request of the Board. These activities have yielded positive results for the police forces. The activities have focused on Information Cooperation between the countries and within the countries, whereby special attention is placed amongst other things on improving analysis capacity in the forces and increasing the effectiveness of working with information. In addition, the activities also place much attention on General Education Programs for the police forces and how these can be further developed in the region while also looking at organizing specialized training programs to further professionalize the forces e.g. Leadership development programs. This will be carried out in collaboration with the local training institutes in Curacao and Aruba with the support of the Netherlands Police Academy.
After informing the Ministers of Justice of the activities that have taken place, the Board informed the Ministers of forthcoming projects. All three Ministers of Justice very much welcomed the opportunity for this first meeting with the Board of Police Chiefs which they found to be quite enlightening. Minister Richardson, supported by her colleague Ministers, expressed the hope that this meeting would mark the beginning of a regular discussion forum between the Ministers and Chiefs of Police to discuss common matters of importance. At the meeting with the Board of Police Chiefs, the Ministers of Justice were introduced to a visiting delegation of the police force of the Republic of Suriname. On behalf of their respective countries the Ministers of Justice conveyed sincere regards and best wishes for the new year to the people of Suriname.
