Council of Ministers agrees with Statute Law Police

February 18, 2009 12:43 PM

The Council of Minister for the Kingdom has agreed with the consensus-statute law Police of Curaçao, St. Maarten and the BES-islands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba) and with the Statute Law Council for the maintenance of law and order.  Both bills will now be sent to the State Council for the Kingdom for advice.

The text of the bills and of the advice of the State Council become public when they are presented to the Lower House and submitted to the Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.
Both bills come from the ministers Ernst Hirsch Ballin (Justice, CDA), and Guusje ter Horst (PvdA) and from state secretary Ank Bijleveld-Schouten (Kingdom Relations, CDA).

The Statute Law Police regulates the organization and management of the police, and the mutual cooperation when the political renewals come into effect.
The Council for maintenance of law and order is an interland body of Curaçao, St. Maarten, and the Netherlands.  The Council is charged with the general inspection on the effectiveness and quality of several services and organizations that are part of the judicial chain in Curaçao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba.  The Council also supervises the effectiveness and quality of the judicial cooperation between Curaçao, St. Maarten, and the Netherlands for the BES-islands.

It is emphasized again that the local embedding of the organization, the authority, and the management of the police in the government of the three countries are first.  In addition, the bill regulates the several forms of police cooperation between the countries.  The police responsibilities are transferred to the police corps and the police's actions are under the national authority.

Pubic order and assistance in Curacao are carried out under the authority of the minister of Justice, and in Bonaire under the authority of the lt. governor.  The minister of Homeland Affairs and Kingdom Relations is responsible for the control of these corps.  Judicially, the police duties are carried out under the authority of the procurator-general.
The mutual cooperation takes shape in the police communal facilities.  They supply people and recourses to the corps for investigation into cross border criminality and heavy and organized criminality.  Such investigations take place within the local corps under leadership of the corps-chief.  The director of the communal facility sees to a good effort of the personnel is made available to the corps and is responsible for the quality.
The bill is also provided with a mutual assistance rule between the corps.  Basic principle is that where necessary and upon request of the countries, the corps assist each other.  In order to give the cooperation shape and keep it simple, the police officers are going to have authority in each of the countries.  In view of the cooperation, the countries can make arrangements regarding the training-, education-, and quality requirements, so that these requirements are as much as possible the same.  It is also arranged that the same official instruction applies to all police officials.

The Council for the maintenance of law and order will concretely focus on prisons and other institutions where freedom restricted measures are taken (tbs, foreigners' custody), the police, the public prosecutor, the police training, and the judicial tasks of the coastguard.   The Council won't interfere with individual criminal investigation requests or criminal persecutions.  The Council is an independent inspection service of the three Countries in concern and has three members that are appointed based on their expertise.  Each of the countries recommends a member.  The members are appointed by Royal Decree.  The chairmanship rotates between the members on an annual basis.
 
(Source: National newspaper Amigoe)
 
16 February, 2009