Law Enforcement Council presents State of Law Enforcement 2017
St. MaartenMei 2018Pers
In addition to the inspection reports produced by the Law Enforcement Council (‘Council’), the Council annually publishes the State of the law enforcement (‘State’) in Sint Maarten, Curaçao, and the Caribbean Netherlands. This State provides an opportunity to outline a more overarching picture of law enforcement in general, based on previous audits, inspections, and research-transcending information. The State is offered to both the Ministers of Justice and the Parliaments of the countries.
In May 2017, the Council issued a very comprehensive State of law enforcement 2016 for St. Maarten. That State should serve as a benchmark for the performance of law enforcement, where the Council examined the entire functioning of the judicial chain based on a normative framework. The outcome led to conclusions that the functioning of law enforcement and its bottlenecks can be reduced to 17 structural factors. The Council assessed the state of law enforcement on the basis of these factors, each serving as a specific benchmark. The final conclusions made clear that operations are predominantly below standard. Although there is a great deal of dedication within the institutions and organizations, there is a general lack of resources, capacity, and facilities.
Looking at the perspective of law enforcement over 2017, it is obvious that the situation and starting position for St. Maarten have not improved. The conclusions by the Council over the timeframe 2010-2016 are unfortunately unchanged for 2017. In particular, the lack of resources has increased, with immediate negative consequences in terms of capacity and facilities. The prospect of improvement remains distant. However, in the context of the Reconstruction, attention is being paid to law enforcement, which may present opportunities. At the same time, it must be realized that structural problems existed long before. In 2017, certain steps were taken, but in the third quarter of the year, the vulnerability of law enforcement in St. Maarten emerged in a very confrontational manner. The Council therefore stresses the importance of a structural approach to the development of law enforcement. To that matter, it is sufficient in this context to refer to the findings and conclusions in the State of last year.
The Ability of the Institutions
The Council considers it important to dwell on a number of important developments that have occurred due to the passage of the hurricanes. The passage of hurricanes, especially Hurricane Irma, transformed St. Maarten into a disaster area within a few hours. In the hours and days after, extreme situations arose in maintaining public order and security. The core of law enforcement was faced with a situation for which it was not prepared. With a high level of improvisation and cooperation, the law enforcement institutions quickly drew up an approach required for that particular circumstance. With very limited resources, they were able to restore order and stability, aided by necessary military and police assistance from other countries. The Council has a positive view on the ability of these organizations to cooperate on an ad hoc basis under such circumstances, enabling them to achieve results—this in itself is admirable.
Unfortunately, the Council cannot say the same of the administrative authorities and their role in disaster coordination. The country of Sint Maarten has shown to be completely unprepared for a disaster of this calibre. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, against which it is virtually impossible to be fully prepared, there should be an infrastructure in place to lean on. However, preparation, disaster coordination, and assistance proved far from optimal. Nevertheless, the competent authority chose to declare the state of emergency at a very late stage—four days after the disaster. Although it is difficult to measure, the consequences for the rule of law, the welfare of the population, and the economy's damage are, in the opinion of many, far greater than if the necessary preparations had been made and decisions had been taken in a timely manner.
The Council recommends that all (cooperating) organizations in the law enforcement chain and disaster coordination evaluate their plans. In the event there are no plans, they must be made. As part of the research into the infrastructure and safety of St. Maarten, the Council will, as already foreseen in the annual plan, also look into these aspects in the near future.
Follow-up of Recommendations
A comparison between the countries quickly reveals that St. Maarten significantly lags behind the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba) and Curaçao in following up on the Council’s recommendations. The Caribbean Netherlands leads in this regard. Not only are the reports pertaining to the Caribbean Netherlands consistently taken into account by the respective Government (Minister), but the organizations are also being equipped to work with the recommendations. In Sint Maarten, the picture is different: the organizations themselves can work with the recommendations as far as possible, but they hardly receive any administrative and financial support for implementation. Nor has Parliament addressed the Minister about the lack of attention to improvements. In some cases, reports have not even been presented to Parliament. Thus, the Parliament’s controlling mechanism within the Government is significantly compromised. This creates the impression that the administrative authorities are far removed from operations and implementation. The Council already identified the attention of the administrative authorities to law enforcement as a structural bottleneck in the State of the Law Enforcement 2016.
The Council recommends that the respective authorities should inform Parliament with structural attention on law enforcement. The Council also recommends that Parliament exercises its control functions and regularly discusses these matters with the Minister of Justice.
Finance and Decision-Making
Given the current situation, the Council outlines a separate paragraph on the financing of law enforcement. The Council regularly learns that structural and necessary provisions are not funded. This also applies to planned or initiated projects. In this section, the Council only addresses (the consequences of) this deficit, not policy-based financing choices.
As examples, the following are mentioned:
- Structural backlogs in payment arrears and/or failure to follow through on policy decisions (e.g., ActPol/Summit, FMS/BMS, JIS, electronic surveillance, buy/renew licenses), resulting in the shutdown of systems or the inability to use a system.
- Structural delays in decision-making, which are crucial to law enforcement and/or general approvals.
- Structural backlog in payment arrears, leading to the cessation or accumulation of long delays in ongoing investigations (e.g., services provided by the Netherlands Forensic Institute).
- Structural delays in the country's contributions, resulting in its inability to fulfill commitments (e.g., the Public Prosecutor’s Office).
The foregoing serves to illustrate that structural matters of eminent importance do not run well on St. Maarten. Since these financial aspects now have a more or less structural character, the Council is concerned about the major implications for law enforcement organizations and, as such, for society as a whole.
Apart from funding, it is apparent that decision-making on financing is often delayed for a long time, thus further development stagnates.
The Council recommends that a long-term plan for the development of organizations and facilities be made as soon as possible, with a sound financing plan. The Council then recommends that the decision-making process be accelerated.
The Council deems it of utmost importance to note that, since the beginning of 2018, the Ministry of Justice has been attempting to make improvements. In the framework of the Reconstruction, plans are being formed on all sides. However, the lack of capacity and access to resources plays a detrimental role. The financial possibilities of the country will be constrained in the coming years. The Council considers that law enforcement is an essential part of proper reconstruction. In this context, the parties involved in the Reconstruction should be aware of the importance of developing law enforcement and ensure that there will be no deterioration but rather progress.
Independent Law Enforcement
In previous reports, before St. Maarten gained autonomous status, it was already noted that the island would not be able to guarantee the required level of law enforcement independently. However, the country of St. Maarten was still charged with law enforcement as an autonomous task. Looking back on 2017 and given the current state of affairs, the question arises again whether the country will be able to guarantee its obligations in the short and/or medium term. Without the full attention of the Government, the availability and allocation of sufficient resources, policy-making, and answering the question: ‘Where do we want to go with law enforcement?’, the Council considers that the country will not be capable of fulfillment.
In recent months, there has been significant assistance from the Netherlands to St. Maarten, particularly in supporting the police and the prison. It has become clear to everyone that St. Maarten could not have managed without that assistance. In society and within the Council, the opinion is that St. Maarten will not be able to perform and fulfill its obligations without continued assistance. Furthermore, the assistance has brought about considerable positive development within the organizations. The Police Corps and its employees have experienced this very positively. There is a fear that when the assistance expires, the progress achieved by the organizations and the assistance will stagnate or decline. Given the current financial situation, the country will lack the necessary resources for further developing law enforcement, which were already desperately needed even before the passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. If the resources were insufficient before the Hurricanes, they will certainly be lacking now.
Therefore, it is important to find a way for St. Maarten to either guarantee law enforcement or establish a cooperative arrangement that allows it to exercise this autonomous task. The latter seems to be a more realistic and viable solution. Legislation within the Kingdom already offers possibilities that have not been optimally explored to date. Willingness to cooperate is even more important. These possibilities can also be explored in the context of the Reconstruction. Recent practice has shown that cooperation can be achieved easily in times of difficulty (crisis). This seems to be an important example for the future.
Conclusion
The Council believes that law enforcement in St. Maarten is currently so vulnerable that continuing on the same path is irresponsible. The organizations within law enforcement that are committed to a safer St. Maarten deserve the same dedication from the Government and its administration. For this reason, the Council uses this State of Law Enforcement 2017 as a call to the Government to pay attention to the law enforcement needs and deserves. The Council considers it important to emphasize that administrative attention to law enforcement is a priority, and the structural solutions to the major challenges facing St. Maarten must be addressed. Cooperation within the Kingdom should be paramount.
Meer pers →
In May 2017, the Council issued a very comprehensive State of law enforcement 2016 for St. Maarten. That State should serve as a benchmark for the performance of law enforcement, where the Council examined the entire functioning of the judicial chain based on a normative framework. The outcome led to conclusions that the functioning of law enforcement and its bottlenecks can be reduced to 17 structural factors. The Council assessed the state of law enforcement on the basis of these factors, each serving as a specific benchmark. The final conclusions made clear that operations are predominantly below standard. Although there is a great deal of dedication within the institutions and organizations, there is a general lack of resources, capacity, and facilities.
Looking at the perspective of law enforcement over 2017, it is obvious that the situation and starting position for St. Maarten have not improved. The conclusions by the Council over the timeframe 2010-2016 are unfortunately unchanged for 2017. In particular, the lack of resources has increased, with immediate negative consequences in terms of capacity and facilities. The prospect of improvement remains distant. However, in the context of the Reconstruction, attention is being paid to law enforcement, which may present opportunities. At the same time, it must be realized that structural problems existed long before. In 2017, certain steps were taken, but in the third quarter of the year, the vulnerability of law enforcement in St. Maarten emerged in a very confrontational manner. The Council therefore stresses the importance of a structural approach to the development of law enforcement. To that matter, it is sufficient in this context to refer to the findings and conclusions in the State of last year.
The Ability of the Institutions
The Council considers it important to dwell on a number of important developments that have occurred due to the passage of the hurricanes. The passage of hurricanes, especially Hurricane Irma, transformed St. Maarten into a disaster area within a few hours. In the hours and days after, extreme situations arose in maintaining public order and security. The core of law enforcement was faced with a situation for which it was not prepared. With a high level of improvisation and cooperation, the law enforcement institutions quickly drew up an approach required for that particular circumstance. With very limited resources, they were able to restore order and stability, aided by necessary military and police assistance from other countries. The Council has a positive view on the ability of these organizations to cooperate on an ad hoc basis under such circumstances, enabling them to achieve results—this in itself is admirable.
Unfortunately, the Council cannot say the same of the administrative authorities and their role in disaster coordination. The country of Sint Maarten has shown to be completely unprepared for a disaster of this calibre. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, against which it is virtually impossible to be fully prepared, there should be an infrastructure in place to lean on. However, preparation, disaster coordination, and assistance proved far from optimal. Nevertheless, the competent authority chose to declare the state of emergency at a very late stage—four days after the disaster. Although it is difficult to measure, the consequences for the rule of law, the welfare of the population, and the economy's damage are, in the opinion of many, far greater than if the necessary preparations had been made and decisions had been taken in a timely manner.
The Council recommends that all (cooperating) organizations in the law enforcement chain and disaster coordination evaluate their plans. In the event there are no plans, they must be made. As part of the research into the infrastructure and safety of St. Maarten, the Council will, as already foreseen in the annual plan, also look into these aspects in the near future.
Follow-up of Recommendations
A comparison between the countries quickly reveals that St. Maarten significantly lags behind the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba) and Curaçao in following up on the Council’s recommendations. The Caribbean Netherlands leads in this regard. Not only are the reports pertaining to the Caribbean Netherlands consistently taken into account by the respective Government (Minister), but the organizations are also being equipped to work with the recommendations. In Sint Maarten, the picture is different: the organizations themselves can work with the recommendations as far as possible, but they hardly receive any administrative and financial support for implementation. Nor has Parliament addressed the Minister about the lack of attention to improvements. In some cases, reports have not even been presented to Parliament. Thus, the Parliament’s controlling mechanism within the Government is significantly compromised. This creates the impression that the administrative authorities are far removed from operations and implementation. The Council already identified the attention of the administrative authorities to law enforcement as a structural bottleneck in the State of the Law Enforcement 2016.
The Council recommends that the respective authorities should inform Parliament with structural attention on law enforcement. The Council also recommends that Parliament exercises its control functions and regularly discusses these matters with the Minister of Justice.
Finance and Decision-Making
Given the current situation, the Council outlines a separate paragraph on the financing of law enforcement. The Council regularly learns that structural and necessary provisions are not funded. This also applies to planned or initiated projects. In this section, the Council only addresses (the consequences of) this deficit, not policy-based financing choices.
As examples, the following are mentioned:
- Structural backlogs in payment arrears and/or failure to follow through on policy decisions (e.g., ActPol/Summit, FMS/BMS, JIS, electronic surveillance, buy/renew licenses), resulting in the shutdown of systems or the inability to use a system.
- Structural delays in decision-making, which are crucial to law enforcement and/or general approvals.
- Structural backlog in payment arrears, leading to the cessation or accumulation of long delays in ongoing investigations (e.g., services provided by the Netherlands Forensic Institute).
- Structural delays in the country's contributions, resulting in its inability to fulfill commitments (e.g., the Public Prosecutor’s Office).
The foregoing serves to illustrate that structural matters of eminent importance do not run well on St. Maarten. Since these financial aspects now have a more or less structural character, the Council is concerned about the major implications for law enforcement organizations and, as such, for society as a whole.
Apart from funding, it is apparent that decision-making on financing is often delayed for a long time, thus further development stagnates.
The Council recommends that a long-term plan for the development of organizations and facilities be made as soon as possible, with a sound financing plan. The Council then recommends that the decision-making process be accelerated.
The Council deems it of utmost importance to note that, since the beginning of 2018, the Ministry of Justice has been attempting to make improvements. In the framework of the Reconstruction, plans are being formed on all sides. However, the lack of capacity and access to resources plays a detrimental role. The financial possibilities of the country will be constrained in the coming years. The Council considers that law enforcement is an essential part of proper reconstruction. In this context, the parties involved in the Reconstruction should be aware of the importance of developing law enforcement and ensure that there will be no deterioration but rather progress.
Independent Law Enforcement
In previous reports, before St. Maarten gained autonomous status, it was already noted that the island would not be able to guarantee the required level of law enforcement independently. However, the country of St. Maarten was still charged with law enforcement as an autonomous task. Looking back on 2017 and given the current state of affairs, the question arises again whether the country will be able to guarantee its obligations in the short and/or medium term. Without the full attention of the Government, the availability and allocation of sufficient resources, policy-making, and answering the question: ‘Where do we want to go with law enforcement?’, the Council considers that the country will not be capable of fulfillment.
In recent months, there has been significant assistance from the Netherlands to St. Maarten, particularly in supporting the police and the prison. It has become clear to everyone that St. Maarten could not have managed without that assistance. In society and within the Council, the opinion is that St. Maarten will not be able to perform and fulfill its obligations without continued assistance. Furthermore, the assistance has brought about considerable positive development within the organizations. The Police Corps and its employees have experienced this very positively. There is a fear that when the assistance expires, the progress achieved by the organizations and the assistance will stagnate or decline. Given the current financial situation, the country will lack the necessary resources for further developing law enforcement, which were already desperately needed even before the passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. If the resources were insufficient before the Hurricanes, they will certainly be lacking now.
Therefore, it is important to find a way for St. Maarten to either guarantee law enforcement or establish a cooperative arrangement that allows it to exercise this autonomous task. The latter seems to be a more realistic and viable solution. Legislation within the Kingdom already offers possibilities that have not been optimally explored to date. Willingness to cooperate is even more important. These possibilities can also be explored in the context of the Reconstruction. Recent practice has shown that cooperation can be achieved easily in times of difficulty (crisis). This seems to be an important example for the future.
Conclusion
The Council believes that law enforcement in St. Maarten is currently so vulnerable that continuing on the same path is irresponsible. The organizations within law enforcement that are committed to a safer St. Maarten deserve the same dedication from the Government and its administration. For this reason, the Council uses this State of Law Enforcement 2017 as a call to the Government to pay attention to the law enforcement needs and deserves. The Council considers it important to emphasize that administrative attention to law enforcement is a priority, and the structural solutions to the major challenges facing St. Maarten must be addressed. Cooperation within the Kingdom should be paramount.
Meer pers →