THE HAGUE--The shortage of detective personnel remains a bottleneck in the Dutch "public entities" Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. The Dutch Royal Marechaussees will keep assisting in this area in the coming years.
That is stated in a letter that Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Piet Hein Donner sent to the Second Chamber last week when he was still in function. The letter dealt with the execution of the motions on the Dutch public entities adopted by Parliament during the recent handling of the Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations 2012 draft budget.
According to the minister, the capacity shortage on the islands is caused by the lack of qualified detectives. The idea is to recruit local personnel for the detective department and to train and transfer current general police officers to that department.
Since these measures will not solve the shortage on short notice it was decided to deploy Marechaussees to the islands in 2011. "This will remain the case in 2012 and the subsequent years," stated Donner.
Things are better where it comes to the general capacity of the police force. With a minimal capacity of 80 per cent the police force easily met its 60 per cent capacity norm for 2011. "The operational capacity of the force in absolute figures is larger now than before the transition date of October 10, 2010," stated Donner.
Minister of Justice and Safety Ivo Opstelten is investing "a lot" in the capacity, quality and visibility" of the police force on the three islands. The yearly budget for the police force for all three islands together is 9.9 million Euro. "This is almost double the budget that was available before the transition date."
Aside from increasing the quantity, the Netherlands is also investing in the quality and visibility of police on the islands. Police cars will get Dutch striping to enhance the visibility while personnel will receive new uniforms which will guarantee their identification as members of the police force.
Officers will continue to be trained in the coming years. The initial training for junior police officers has started and other training facilities will also commence shortly. The Lt. Governors of the islands will receive disaster and crisis management training during the visit to the Netherlands in March 2012.
The Safety District Haaglanden has indicated that in principle it is willing to assist the islands with the drafting of disaster and crisis plans on short notice.
Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba have the attention of the Dutch cabinet and are discussed in regular meetings with government officials of the islands, assured Donner. He stated this in response to a carried motion of eight party leaders in Parliament.
Stef Blok (VVD), Job Cohen (PvdA), Sybrand van Haersema Buma (CDA), Emile Roemer (SP), Jolande Sap (GroenLinks), Alexander Pechtold (D66), Arie Slob (CU) and Kees van der Staaij (SGP), after their visit to the islands in October this year, requested government to present a plan of approach to come to concrete improvement for citizens on the 'public entities.'
In his letter, Donner dealt with the specific areas of concern of the Second Chamber: health care (medical referrals, medication), youth affairs, quality of life (buying power, wages) safety (police) and finances (free allowance).
The minister promised he would execute a motion by Members of Parliament Wassila Hachchi (D66), Martijn van Dam (PvdA) and Ineke van Gent (GroenLinks) to have a uniform method of presentation of the means for the 'public entities' in subsequent budgets.
Donner further announced the visit of Dutch Minister of Public Health, Wellbeing and Sports VWS Edith Schippers to the islands in the spring of 2012.
Biology Guantánamo Bay Digital media Simon Cowell Opera Royal Bank of Scotland
No comments:
Post a Comment