The Curaçao Police Force KPC intends to enhance firearms training and revise instructions on their use (see Tuesday paper). This, following the conviction of an officer for shooting an unarmed intruder in the leg.
No prison sentence and only suspended community service was given, mind you, but management still considered it a clear indication that this matter deserves urgent attention. After all, the Law Enforcement Council previously criticised the shooting proficiency – or lack of such – among police officers and said some had not attended required individual basic training (IBT) courses for years.
The St. Maarten Police Force KPSM would do well to consider following suit. Not that anything is necessarily terribly wrong, but the situation could probably be better here too.
One must take into account how the world has changed and, for example, even the rights of suspected criminals are given more priority than ever. Public scrutiny is much higher than in the past due primarily to the greater prevalence of mobile recording devices and surveillance cameras, including so-called “body-cams” worn by authorities in many countries to provide evidence and legally protect both sides.
These developments make going “strictly by the book” increasingly important and the manuals themselves might require adjustment to different circumstances. The former Soremar building at Orange Grove was going to become the new shooting range, but got damaged by Hurricane Irma and subsequently demolished, so certainly in terms of related facilities there still appears to be room for improvement.
