St. Maarten and St. Martin officials meet about crime prevention

September 04, 2014 9:39 AM
PHILIPSBURG–A delegation from Paris, France, visited Philipsburg on Tuesday and had discussions with Governor Eugene Holiday and Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson about crime prevention and the fight against illegal firearms.
 
The French officials came from the Inspectorates of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Gendarmerie Nationale and the Police Nationale, and were led by Senior Former Sous-Préfet Dominique Lacroix.
 
The French authorities are auditing the performance of the different entities on the French side and hope to come up with recommendations to improve the cooperation between the different law enforcement organisations on both sides of the island.
 
Sous-Prefet Lacroix and his delegation will also visit Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guyana, but he explained that French St. Martin is unique since it is the only French overseas island that has an international border. Effective law enforcement has to take that border and its open character into account.
 
Minister Richardson met the French experts together with senior officials from the Prosecutors Office, the St. Maarten Police Force KPSM, the Customs Department, the Coast Guard, and the Immigration and Border Protection Service. They informed the French Sous-Préfet and his delegation about the actual cooperation that takes place in the field.
 
Minister Richardson and Sous-Préfet Lacroix agreed that the present cooperation is working well on an ad-hoc level, but there is still room for improvement on a strategic level, first of all, by organising a structured and frequent information exchange between authorities in Marigot and Philipsburg.
 
They agreed it seems logical to involve neighbouring islands such as Anguilla, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Kitts, but also the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. The general observation was that crime does not stop at borders so we must make sure law enforcement can function across borders as well.
Richardson mentioned that he hopes the Police Cooperation Treaty with France will be ratified this year by Parliament in The Hague. This will facilitate cooperation tremendously.
 
Richardson also hopes that the same type of cooperation agreement can be reached for maritime law enforcement by the two Coast Guard organisations. He concluded by responding positively to the French suggestion to station a French liaison officer inside the St. Maarten Police Force and to appoint a KPSM liaison officer for the Gendarmerie and Police Nationale.
 
(Source:The Daily Herald, St. Maarten)

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