PHILIPSBURG:--- In a press release of the 27th of August 2014, the Chief Prosecutor of St. Maarten, Mr. Eric Noordhoek states that he has already brought to the attention of the Minister of Justice the shortage of manpower at the National Detective Agency (landsrecherche) of Sint Maarten.
The present Minister of Justice, Mr. Dennis Richardson, as well as the former Minister of Justice, Mr. Roland Duncan, have been aware of the shortage of manpower of the National Detective Agency since its inception, therefore before achieving country status by Sint Maarten.
The then Netherlands Antilles government promised to assist Sint Maarten in the development of its countries organizations leading up to its country status, especially in the areas where Sint Maarten did not carry any responsibility before as an Island Territory, amongst others therefore in the area of the Department of Justice.
This promise was not kept and the National Detective Agency started out at 10-10-10 with one person, the present head of the agency, who did not even have an office at that time.
In the early stages of its development the head of agency tried to get assistance from the National Detective (Rijksrecherche) agency in the Netherlands, an assistance that never materialized. Support was promised once the agency reached full capacity. A peculiar approach since it would be doubtful if such assistance would be necessary once the agency is fully developed. Operational assistance was needed then and there in view of the workload already for the fledgling agency.
At the request of the then Minister of Justice Aruba sprang to the aid of the our national detective agency by making three (3) detectives available for 3 months, with an extension of one detective for one month, for a large operation. Furthermore the agency also received assistance from detectives of the Police Force of Sint Maarten.
In the meantime the agency has been expanded to presently 9 full time equivalents and, notwithstanding the financial constraints of the country, has 9 vacancies that can be filled: 5 this year and 4 in 2014, which will bring it to a total of 18 fte's. At 20 to 23 fte's the agency will be at its full capacity.
At the beginning of 2014 Justice Minister, Dennis Richardson, filed a request to Minister of Security and Justice, Minister Ivo Opstelten of the Netherlands for temporary operational assistance from the Rijksrecherche with four detectives in view of the present workload of the Landsrecherche of Sint Maarten.
Eight months later, that assistance has not materialized as yet!
A little known fact is that the Attorney General of Curacao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius can independent of the Ministers of Justice of Curacao and Aruba also call for the assistance of the Rijksrecherche of the Netherlands. Such a request would be based on article 35 of the Kingdom Law on Public Prosecution.
Why that did not happen in previous years is not known.
Recently (June/July 2014) however the present Attorney General, Mr. Guus Scram, has also requested the assistance of the Rijksrecherche.
The Minister of Justice, Dennis Richardson and the National Detective Agency are still awaiting with contained breath the results of this most recent initiative for acquiring the assistance from the Netherlands.
The Minister of Justice of Sint Maarten
Dennis L. Richardson
