A dozen local police officers were no doubt glad with the ruling in their favour by the Court of Civil Service Affairs (see Tuesday paper). They had been employed since 2012, but did not receive their appointments as full-ledged officers by National Decree until July 2016, with a retroactive compensation for only one year.
The reason was that they had been hired as cadets in training to follow the basic police course BPO, but this never happened. Instead, they were set to work as regular police during all that time. The officers therefore sought compensation going back to February 1, 2012 and to be promoted to the rank of sergeant (brigadier).
The St. Maarten Police Force management team argued via its attorney that there had been no money for the training. They also said the cadets hadn’t actually worked as full-fledged officers.
However, the court apparently disagreed, ordering the Governor to make a new decision on the starting date of the plaintiffs’ decrees within six weeks and to indicate when their BPO course would begin. What may have played a role is that the cadets claimed they consistently kept asking about the training and were always told it would take place soon.
Apart from the case itself, the fact that cadets reportedly executed police tasks for which they had not been properly trained is reason for concern. According to them, this even included working as a detective or a member of the Arrest Team, supposedly without any supervision.
In a certain sense this situation is understandable, due to the structural shortage of personnel and other means within the local Police Force. Nevertheless, it was hardly a responsible approach that could easily have led to major problems if something had gone wrong.
