This Friday, the St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA) and the Korps Politie St. Maarten (KPSM) held a joint seminar to exchange information on safety and practical tips on how to prevent, respond to, and act after, should a criminal incident take place.
Although deliberate criminal intent will always remain a challenge, there are many actions that can be taken to reduce a business’s attractiveness to perpetrators. Strategies range from communication and vigilance to landscaping and in-house property design.
The intent of SHTA and KPSM was to organize a mutual information exchange: enabling businesses to learn from KPSM’s expert guidance, while allowing KPSM to benefit from business reflections on these strategies. The seminar was the result of several constructive meetings between the two organizations addressing recent incidents.
The seminar aimed to strengthen collaboration between law enforcement and the business community by offering practical, low-cost strategies to reduce crime risk, improve preparedness, and enhance public confidence, particularly in light of budget constraints facing the police. KPSM took the exchange very seriously and allocated experts and district officers to present an overview of police strategies and key contacts.
Central to the approach shared by KPSM was the CPTED, (pronounced SEP-TED) or Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, is a proactive strategy using urban and architectural design to reduce crime and fear by shaping the built environment, making spaces less inviting for criminals and safer for users through principles like natural surveillance, access control, and territorial reinforcement.
This policing philosophy focuses on community engagement, environmental design, target hardening, and crime analysis and prevention strategies. It examines two key factors, time and opportunity and how these can be reduced for individuals with criminal intent.
Chief Officer Carl John of KPSM opened and closed the event, and sharing lessons from his own professional experience in between topical presentations by his specialized officers. Next to experts on strategies and behavior, district officers presented themselves to let the business representatives know there is always a dedicated expert for a certain area as “go to person” for dialogue and observations.
Through an interactive exercise in which an officer briefly posed as a “suspect,” participants experienced firsthand how difficult it is to provide accurate perpetrator descriptions. John advised: “Always write down your own recollection of the situation before discussing it with others. Unintentionally, our memories adapt through later information exchange. The most accurate picture emerges when individual accounts are compared afterward.”
Businesses were encouraged to contribute by sharing their own observations and implementing seemingly small but effective measures. These include actively greeting customers upon entry, escorting the last client out, and monitoring unusual behavior. Design considerations may include lower shelving for improved visibility, CCTV installation, and low exterior hedges.
Attention was also given to the “broken windows” theory. This criminological and sociological concept suggests that visible signs of disorder and neglect encourage further disorder and crime. If a broken window is left unrepaired, it may signal that no one cares about the property, potentially leading to vandalism or theft.
“By maintaining visible upkeep and active management of a property, through cleanliness, engagement, conversation, and vigilance, a strong deterrent is created in its own right.” Careful screening during the hiring process was also emphasized. “If a candidate has had 30 jobs in a short period of time, that should raise questions for conversation, why is that? From an HR-perspective, training is also important. If you have practiced potential settings and protocols before they occur, you will act better in the real situation,” said John.
A key message emphasized throughout the seminar was that while crime-related videos and incidents spread rapidly online, it is equally important for the public to see that proactive measures are being taken by both the police and the business community.
SHTA thanked KPSM for its diligent preparation and significant allocation of resources for the educational and interactive masterclass. As the association represents over half of St. Maarten’s economic output, SHTA offered continued collaboration and use of its platforms to support KPSM’s community-focused CEPTC strategy.