Marigot: --- Several Dutch police vehicles were seen on Monday midday racing over the border in Bellevue in a high-speed chase. Eyewitnesses say they saw at least five police cars raced through St. James and Low Town. One eyewitness said that the police were chasing an alleged robber who was on a motorcycle who eventually crashed his bike and fell but police did not manage to stop the thief as he still managed to escape. It is further understood that the gendarmes took at least half an hour after the accident to arrive on the scene.According to information reaching SMN News the Dutch side police does not have any authority to cross over to the French side and vise versa. In an invited comment, Christophe Coelho from the Prefecture of St. Martin said the agreement discussions between the Dutch and French is still ongoing. He said while there are certain levels of cooperation between the two sides the police and gendarmes are not permitted to cross over the border even if it is a high-speed chase.
The gendarmes and the police do have a verbal agreement pertaining to high-speed chase. Some years ago, a radio and telephone system was put into service for the two sides to contact each other in the event of an emergency, such as high-speed chases or the capturing of criminals who are trying to escape law enforcement on either side.In a press release, Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson said while they were in Dutch Quarter conducting an investigation they identified a suspect for whom a warrant is out. Henson said they have been looking for this suspect for quite sometime and when the detectives attempted to approach him, he took off on a motor cycle trying to avoid being captured. Henson said the detectives immediately contacted the central dispatch who also contacted the gendarmes and they promised to get to the scene immediately. The police spokesman said the Dutch police also notified the gendarmes that they were going to go across the border hoping that they would capture the wanted man. Henson said the chase continued on to St. James and the biker fell but he got up unhurt and began running through the residential area. Henson said police conducted a foot chase but the culprit still managed to escape through the buildings. He said the gendarmes have since taken over the investigation.
