Philipsburg:--- Besides the marching by the police and BAVPOL officers and the church service held in front of the Philipsburg Police Station, the Police Organization honored three officers of the law for their long service while they swore in 22 new recruits. The three officers that were honored are Norwin Barnebella and Humphrey Gitterson for serving as officers of the law for the past 40 years along with Helen Romeo for being a police officer for the past 25 years.The police department also added 22 new men and women to their crew, 13 of which are still undergoing training here on St. Maarten to become full fledged police officers, while nine officers that completed their police training were sworn in by Minister of Justice Roland Duncan and Chief Commissioner of Police Peter de Witte.
The sermon was conducted by Pastor Royston Philbert. Philbert focused on the service the police should be giving to the community of St. Maarten. He made clear that if the crime situation is to change then the people residing here including the Police must change individually.
Delivering speeches were the Minister of Justice and the Chief Commissioner of Police. De Witte said that Constitution Day is indeed a historical day since St. Maarten celebrated its first anniversary as a country within the Kingdom and the Police celebrated their first anniversary as KPSM.
The top cop said as a new country there are challenges for everyone including the police. He said they have to overcome the challenges they will face in the coming years but Rome he said was not built in one day. The police he said is working hard to meet their challenges and the team is determined to move forward together in order for them to achieve their goals. The goal of the police he described as being simple and that is to serve and protect the people of St. Maarten. "We are committed to give the people of country St. Maarten a five star police organization that provides the best safety and the best service in the region and while this may not be visible for everyone we know our task and you the people of St. Maarten deserve no less than the best," De Witte said.De Witte said during the last parliamentary debate they agreed that there has been a serious rise in violent criminal activity which is unacceptable. However, the community must join forces with the police to bring an end to criminality. Security is a rule of law which requires an adequate budget. "Last year, we started off with a solid plan of approach for the next five years. However, our setback is that we are presently in discussions with our Minister of Justice for changes to this plan. I nevertheless, have full confidence that these discussions will be completed very soon, so we will have a new clear course of direction. We will then be able to finally fill-in our placement-plan," the top cop said.
De Witte said their growing concern is the fight against crime and with the additional manpower such as the new recruits and the 20 Dutch officers who have joined KPSM for the next three years will help them to decrease the crime rate. He stressed that the police wants to do things right but that he said is difficult with limited manpower. The top cop said he is indeed grateful to his officers for their loyalty and passion as they continue to work overtime on the ongoing investigations and patrol the streets of St. Maarten.
The 20 officers coming from the Netherlands will be working in the uniform and investigation divisions of the police force which would help with the workload currently on the backs of the local officers.
The top cop said next year the police force of St. Maarten will be hosting the "Police Kingdom Games" which will be on October 10 2012. During this event, there will be delegations from the police forces of the Netherlands, the BES islands, Suriname, Curacao, Aruba and St. Maarten taking part in the games. KPSM he said is already busy preparing to make sure the event is the most memorable ever.
Click here to view photos of the police celebration and swearing in of new officers.