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Holiday calls Govt plans to form Tourist Police ‘scary’
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Mar 9, 2006 15:42 UTC
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PHILIPSBURG - If the Executive Council starts recruiting its own members for the tourism police team “Soualiga Police” that would be a sad situation, Police Chief Commissioner of the Windward Islands Derrick Holiday told The Daily Herald. He understands that to be the government’s intention.
He said Wednesday, “I have learnt that the Executive Council has decided to stop the process to have the Windward Islands Police Force recruit suitable candidates to form the Soualiga Team of tourist police officers and that they intend to form their own team.”
He continued, “That I find very scary. If we look at the process of obtaining separate status and the enormous amount of pressure being hammered on us by the Dutch Government regarding security and the justice system, it is scary to think that we would now be lowering the standards for hiring police officers to form this team.”
His statements came on the heels of demands from Member of Parliament (MP) Maria Buncamper-Molanus in a letter to Chairman of the Executive Council Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards to obtain clarity on why five months down the road the Soualiga Team had not materialised as promised.
In the letter, Buncamper-Molanus accused the police force of “turning a blind eye to criminal activities taking place in Great Bay.”
Holiday was not amused. “Seeing the performance of our police officers who are understaffed and at times overworked, just so that they can get the job done, it is a slap in the face to us when government officials would openly say that we are turning a blind eye to crime,” he said.
“If you want to take control of the Tourist Police then do that, but not by making statements that are degrading and demeaning to police officers who put their lives on the line every day to protect you and your children,” he said.
Holiday pointed out that the recruiting of new officers is a time consuming business. “We were given orders to create a group of 20 officers to do the job of becoming Tourist Police and make sure that they can effectively carry out the duties of a police officer. This is a process which takes time, because it is necessary to properly screen all candidates and when you look at the results that are coming back from the psychological evaluation of these candidates and their passing grades, it is scary.”
“With all due respect to security forces on the island, we were not given the job to create a security company. We started with 60 candidates and there are many dropping off. You can blame us if you want to, but we have to ensure that we have credible people whom we will be putting in police uniforms and giving guns to police our community,” he stated.
Holiday said the department had opted to lower the educational requirement for candidates because of the urgency of starting the team, which was created with the intention of patrolling Philipsburg in a bid to curtail the spate of violent crimes and robberies in the area. But at the same time, “We explained to the government that the process of recruiting takes time if you want to get the right people to do the job and not just take anyone from off the streets and make them officers.”
He said a major problem with recruiting the candidates for the job was the passing grade. Many candidates failed the psychiatric evaluation and the written exam, but police do not determine the results of these exams, according to Holiday.
Of some 60 people who applied, only 14 remained after the screening process was completed. They will have to pass a medical examination to be accepted.
However, he noted that it was a positive sign that of the 14 candidates, six had been evaluated as being suitable to become full-fledged police officers, while the remaining eight had what it took to be members of the Soualiga Team, according to their psychiatric evaluation.
He said he found the council’s intention to form its own force “irresponsible.” He says this put St. Maarten at risk if the council was not careful whom they put in uniform and gave guns.
He said he had heard that the Executive Council had originally wanted to use St. Maarten Voluntary Corps VKS officers, but after learning that 20 had applied and failed to become Soualiga Police during the recruitment process, “that plan may have now changed.”
The possibility of Front Street merchants chipping in to hire a security company was explored in the past. According to Holiday, it is likely that they will again resort to that with financial assistance from the Harbour.
Whatever the Executive Council’s decision is, he remains committed to a strict process to recruit police officers. (Alfred Harley)
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