Nearly half of Justice positions remain vacant, police overtime repeatedly exceeds allocations, and additional money alone cannot deliver more trained officers in 2027.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Justice Nathalie Tackling has laid out a stark picture of Sint Maarten’s law enforcement capacity: widespread vacancies, an aging police fleet, and a police force whose ability to maintain services depends heavily on overtime.
Responding to MPs during the Central Committee’s consideration of the draft 2027 budget, Tackling said almost 50% of positions across the Ministry remain vacant. She identified a 47.7% staffing shortage at KPSM, with vacancies extending through leadership, specialist, operational and support functions.
The consequences reach beyond police patrols. Tackling said shortages affect criminal investigations, border control, immigration services, prison security, rehabilitation and youth services, as well as the Ministry’s financial control, legal policy and human resources work.
Her explanation of police overtime exposed the financial cost of keeping an understaffed system functioning.
For 2025, KPSM overtime expenditure reached approximately Cg. 2.7 million against an allocation of Cg. 1.2 million. For 2026 to date, it had already reached approximately Cg. 1.9 million against the same Cg. 1.2 million allocation.
“Put simply, when a service works at 40% to 70% of its formation and still has to cover 24-7 shifts, the gap is closed with overtime,” Tackling said.
She described overtime reliance as affecting almost the entire police force. Immigration and Border Protection also has an average of 64 officers working overtime, while eight personnel at the National Detectives do so.
Responding to MP Sjamira Roseburg about targeted controls, Tackling said these operations would continue in 2027. However, maintaining the intensity of additional controls requires overtime or outside assistance because KPSM cannot absorb that workload within normal working hours.
The Minister said an increased overtime allocation would therefore be necessary.
That admission presents Parliament with a concrete budget question: whether the next allocation will reflect the actual cost of policing, given that the existing provision has repeatedly fallen short.
Recruitment faces limits money cannot immediately remove
Tackling said the 2027 budget provides for six police positions. Seven recruits are expected to complete their training and join the force at the beginning of 2027, while five KPSM recruits are scheduled to enter a combined training class in early November.
Those figures describe different stages of recruitment and training and should not be treated as a single total of additional officers available immediately.
Becoming a fully armed police officer requires two years of basic training. Tackling said the police academy in the Netherlands can offer only one class annually, shared with the Caribbean Netherlands police force.
Even with additional funding, she said, extra classes would not be possible in 2027. Finding suitable candidates is another constraint: only seven and five candidates qualified in the last two intakes.
Meanwhile, 15 people resigned from the Ministry between October 1, 2025, and the date of her response. Tackling also identified seven scheduled KPSM retirements during 2026, alongside other personnel movements.
Technology offers support, but delivery remains ahead
The Minister outlined modernization plans that include body cameras, Tasers, drones and artificial intelligence applications. A body-camera and Taser pilot is planned for early 2027, while initial AI cameras are being tested.
She also said KPSM already uses drones and is finalizing an initiative involving a drone capable of patrolling without continuous operator control.
The tourist police proposal remains a pilot awaiting finalized funding and mandates. Its personnel would focus on prevention and public assistance in busy tourist areas, rather than regular emergency-response duties.
Equipment is another pressure point. KPSM has approximately 70 vehicles, most older than six years. Four vehicles declared total losses are to be replaced using insurance proceeds. Tackling identified a Cg. 1.512 million request across the 2027 capital and multiannual budgets for police fleet purchases, plus Cg. 175,000 for National Detectives vehicles.
The Minister’s responses establish the scale of the challenge. The test for the 2027 budget is whether it can sustain daily policing while delivering recruitment, equipment and technology improvements—and whether Parliament receives measurable evidence that those investments improve public safety.