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COLE BAY--Government plans to spend some NAf. 2 million to acquire the old Soremar building in Orange Grove, Cole Bay, to use as a shooting range for police and other armed branches of the justice chain.
The location will be converted into a shooting range, the central dispatch of the police and also the nerve centre for the planned country-wide camera surveillance system, Justice Minister Dennis Richardson told Parliament on Wednesday.
Government has also earmarked some NAf. 4 million in its capital budget for this and other justice projects.
Training of police officers has the keen attention of the justice minister. Much effort has already been placed in the Justice Academy which has been officially recognised by the Justice Ministry and recognition is pending from the Education Ministry. This recognition is expected to be in place by December.
Training for new recruits and other classes are conducted “more and more in English,†Richardson said in answer to queries from MPs. However, he cautioned them that Dutch was necessary, because the country’s laws and procedures governing the police and police actions are in Dutch.
The Netherlands for some time now had halted the police training possibilities for officers from St. Maarten. One of the reasons is the training has moved away from classrooms to on-the-job training in the Netherlands. To access training, an officer from St. Maarten would need to move to the Netherlands and be embedded with a local police department, if a post can be found.
Richardson hopes with the protocol signed at the end of May with The Hague to aid in the strengthening of the justice chain it will reopen possibilities for training with instructors from the Netherlands once again.
