School Of Justice To Train St. Maarten Police Officers

Miami Dade College’s School of Justice will be mentoring police officers on the island of St. Maarten this summer.

According to Hector Garcia, Director of School of Justice, the aim of the mentorship program is to improve their community policing.

On April 12, Saint Maarten officials visited North Campus to make final arrangements.

“Your policing tactics are perfect for our country,” said Irene Simmons, St. Maarten’s Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Justice. “We are trying to improve our law enforcement agencies.”

St. Maarten’s police commissioner Carl John, as well as well as Arie Broedere, a police adviser from the Netherlands, were in attendance.

According to Garcia, the program consists of two parts.

Two MDC instructors will train and mentor ten St. Maarten officers on the island. After the training, the officers will be placed as interns at a police department within Miami-Dade County.

“I’m really excited to see our officers get great training from people at MDC,” John said.  “Our country has many similarities to Miami and I know it is going to be great.”