Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – “If we are serious about tackling crime then we must give our police officers the correct tools they need to do the jobs they have been employed to do,†leader of the OSPP Lenny Priest said following reports that the local police force is still operating without its ACTPOL information software.
Reports in The Daily Herald of August 23rd indicate that the local police force has been operating without the ACTPOL software since June 7th and that this has generated some international concerns since the ACTPOL is a shared information system between Curacao, St. Maarten, Aruba and the Netherlands.
“I read with concern that persons on international criminal watch lists travelled through St. Maarten a few weeks ago with no hesitation. If something happens where for instance one of these criminals slips through the cracks and ends up settled on St. Maarten making it his base for his nefarious activities, then who is to blame? It cannot be our local police when they have not been given the necessary tools to do the job they have been employed to do. We need to get serious. At this time in history when all countries are making efforts to secure their borders and to ensure their police force is properly equipped, we cannot be lax with our security. Our officers are willing and able to do their jobs but they must be provided with all the necessary tools,†Priest said.
Responding to reports that an in-house system is currently being built, Priest questioned whether it is cheaper to build this new system than to pay the monies owed by the justice ministry to Stichting Beheer ICT Rechtshandhaving and whether that was the deciding factor in deciding on this in-house software system that is reportedly being worked on. “We cannot sacrifice our safety and security and that of our officers to save costs for something that is necessary. It is ridiculous that the justice ministry would leave a huge debt incurred for something as vital to the island as the ACTPOL, unpaid, despite being reminded before action was taken by the company responsible for its maintenance. I am also curious to know if any considerations were taken for this debt in our now balanced budget,†Priest said in a press release issued on Tuesday.
The ACTPOL system holds vital information shared among the police forces of the Netherlands, Curacao, Aruba and St. Maarten and allows each police station to function independently while the data flows at the same time to a central server. “I am all for learning from experience but some lessons are too expensive to be learnt that way and this is one of them. We cannot play games or cut corners with our security. Our officers must have all necessary tools to do the jobs they have been assigned and it is the responsibility of the justice ministry to ensure they have it,†Priest concluded.
