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Police officers from St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius will be better equipped to carry out their duties, thanks to “rigorous” three-day training on Situational Oriented Policing that they are currently undergoing, reports The Daily Herald.
The classes began on May 9 and will continue until May 14. Officers from Saba and Statia will be assisted on their respective islands by officers from the St. Maarten Police Force as part of the cooperation between the police forces. The sessions are equivalent to the Integral Profession Training – an in-house training given to local officers by local police instructors in April 2016.
Five instructors from the Police Academy in Ossendrecht in the Netherlands are in St. Maarten facilitating the training. The instructors, Sjoerd Schepers, Michiel Bitter, Alex van Andel, Chris Dudink and Willem Hamoen, are experienced instructors in Integral Profession Training and Mental Toughness where practical police work is concerned.
The training will cover topics such as dealing with practical situations in public, around motor vehicles and in closed-in areas. Following the training, the instructors will travel to Bonaire where they will train officers on that
island in similar techniques.
The training was agreed upon during the discussions held between the four Justice Ministries in the Kingdom JVO. It is a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Safety and Justice in the Netherlands, St. Maarten’s Minister of Justice Edson Kirindongo and Chief of Police in St. Maarten Carl John.
The training is financed by the Netherlands and is focusing on the upgrading and professionalising of the police force. Given the financial situation the local force is confronted with, Kirindongo “immediately gave his approval for the training” to be organised in St. Maarten, allowing the members of the local police force to participate, Police spokesperson Chief Inspector Ricardo Henson said in a press release on Tuesday.