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Special police unit named ‘City Patrol’
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Sep 1, 2005 15:29 UTC
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PHILIPSBURG - Police have put together a “Petit Committee” to jumpstart the process of installing the members of what will now be called the “City Patrol” formerly Tourist Police. Police will begin their recruitment campaign on Monday, September 5.
Police Acting Chief Commissioner Ademar Doran has announced that some 33 persons have already submitted their résumés in a bid to fill the 20 vacant positions.
The members of the committee held a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Philipsburg police station, during which they fielded questions from journalists regarding the plan of action for the City Patrol.
The members are Doran, Roddy Heyliger and Frank Mingo. According to Doran, the concept of the City Patrol was adopted from International Security Adviser for Tourism Oriented Countries Dr. Peter Tarlow, who was invited here by Chairman of a Petit Committee of the Chamber of Commerce Eugene James.
Tarlow held a weeklong session with different organisations and one of the topics discussed was the need for police officers with more people skills who were in fact more service-oriented and could be put in positions where they interacted routinely with tourists to give them a sense of comfort.
Doran said funds had been secured to hire professionals to give the 20 qualified candidates the specialised customer service-oriented training they would require for the programme to be effective. He said consideration has been given to inviting Dr. Tarlow as one of the persons conducting such training.
In addition, he said, the recruits would receive three month’s training, which will be done locally. Training is scheduled to start on October 1.
Doran also noted the need to change the name from Tourist Police to City Police, in recognition of the fact that the group would likely have a broader scope of responsibilities. He said they would concentrate on Philipsburg in Phase One, while in Phase Two they would likely increase the number of officers and spread to other areas in Dutch St. Maarten.
Mingo, who also spoke briefly, said it was important to note that tourists and the general population would enjoy the comfort of seeing more officers in the Philipsburg area.
The plan is to have the patrol unit work in police uniform with normal police powers from 7:00am until 2:00am. Doran said there was some urgency in executing the project, as its financing had been approved by the Island Government recently.
Qualified candidates must have LTS (VSBO) or MAVO (VSBO) level qualifications, must be ages 18-34 and must be in good physical health. They will be taught to deal with traffic and other police-related issues that might arise while they are on duty in Philipsburg.
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