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SUCKER GARDEN-- On Wednesday, August 6, Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson was given a guided tour of the ongoing construction of the new police training centre, and also visited the new Joint Emergency Dispatch Centre, which is presently being completed.
Present during the tour of the new training centre was Chief of Police Peter de Witte, Acting Chief of Police, Commissioner Carl John and police advisor Klaas Groen.
The training centre is being built at the former B.B.W. building on Sucker garden road, which is currently being rebuilt.
The new training centre will include several classrooms where theoretical instruction can be given. There will be an area for self-defence classes and other practical training. A modern shooting range will also be installed at the training centre.
The new joint emergency centre will be used by all emergency services on St. Maarten. This dispatch centre is a project financed by funding agency USONA, and aims to be an ultra-modern, state-of-the-art facility. In the Netherlands, there is only one such joint dispatch centre, which has proven to be very effective and successful.
The centre in Sint Maarten will be the second one in the Kingdom. It will offer 24-hour service, where all emergency calls come in at one central location, from where the relevant emergency service(s) can immediately be dispatched.
This way, the communication and coordination between emergency services will drastically improve, which in turn will contribute to a much better response time to any emergency.
The Dispatch Centre will consist of 6 dispatch terminals. Several meetings between the head and other representatives of the Ambulance Department and the police management team were held, and working agreements between these two services have already been signed.
All Emergency Dispatch personnel will be trained in the new 911 software and will be qualified to handle any type of emergency situation.
Chief of Police Peter de Witte, Acting Chief of Police Carl John, police advisor Klaas Groen, Head of the Police Central Dispatch Chief Inspector Benjamin Gout, and head of the Ambulance Department Cyl Richardson were present during the visit to the dispatch centre.
The Minister of Justice said he is h happy and impressed with the progress of both the training and the dispatch centres, and urged the management team to continue its hard work in making these projects a reality.
The dispatch centre, at an earlier stage, was also visited by the Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare Cornelius de Weever, who applauded the great efforts that were being made to bring all emergency services together.
