Heyliger not satisfied
with Soualiga Patrol
~ Says Front Street ready for surveillance cameras ~
PHILIPSBURG/St. Maarten--Plans to use surveillance cameras to boost security and safety in Philipsburg may well not materialise if the officials responsible for the Soualiga Patrol Unit (SPU) do not make the team function, Tourism Commissioner Theo Heyliger said Tuesday.
Heyliger said he believed SPU, which was launched officially early April, was in fact “not functioning.” He said even if the legal framework to put the surveillance cameras in Philipsburg were handled tomorrow, the plan still faced the possibility of not being implemented, because it required manpower to monitor the cameras.
The idea of surveillance cameras is to give the police and SPU, with their limited manpower, additional eyes to protect citizens who continue to be concerned about criminal activities in Philipsburg.
“I can confirm that during the designing of the Front Street Improvement Project we installed empty pipes in preparation to run lines for surveillance cameras,” Heyliger told The Daily Herald Tuesday. “We have designs for the cameras, but no plans have been approved, as they have to be approved by the Prosecutor’s Office, the Lt. Governor and the Executive Council. Then there is also the financing of the project.”
He said it would also require people to monitor the surveillance cameras at a central location. Captain Hodge Wharf was chosen as the location as it is considered a central area in Philipsburg. The plan calls for SPU to do that work.
“Even if we install cameras tomorrow, who will monitor them?” Heyliger asked. He expressed concern that while the protocol had already been signed for SPU to make use of the upstairs office space at Captain Hodge Wharf, which is managed by the Harbour, nothing had been done to move the team into that office.
He said that to date, no one had sat with the harbour management and discussed SPU’s use of the office at Captain Hodge Wharf – whether they had to provide their own furniture “or if we needed to assist with that too.” He said the fact that that had not been done showed that no one was executing the arrangements government had put in place to help solve the problem of crime in Philipsburg.
He said the Island Government had secured vehicles and guns, but couldn’t do more. “We put it on the budget and approved the vehicles for the SPU and the training, but if they don’t carry out their end, all I can do as commissioner is complain to the Lt. Governor,” he said.
He said the issue of security was of great concern to the government, to the extent that he had travelled to Curaçao to witness firsthand the way its Tourist Police Unit (SKU) operated.
Heyliger noted that matters relating to SPU’s operations were referred to Police Chief Commissioner of the Windward Islands Derrick Holiday and he explained that because Holiday did not report to the Executive Council, Government could only make suggestions.
In early discussions about the setting up of SPU, Holiday had some fundamental differences about the approach that was being taken.
He also expressed concern that the problems now occurring in Mullet Bay might worsen. “If they can’t put the team together for Philipsburg,” he said, “how in God’s name will they be able to do it for Mullet Bay?”
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