There needs to be a better system in place to collect fines

Member of Parliament George Pantophlet says that there needs to be a better system to collect fines. He is referencing an article in the daily newspaper of October 27, 2022 in which it mentions that traffic controls were held between the Dutch St. Maarten Police Force and the St. Martin French Police. Fines were issued based on the control of 45 vehicles. While these controls are welcome and should be more frequent, the collecting of the fines seems to be a problem. It was in January 27, 2015 that the persecutor’s office placed an article entitled “Persecutor’s office receives more penalty cards for enforcing fines.” The article went on to state that the persecutor’s office received another 1000 penalty cards. The penalty cards according to the article are used when a fine is given. The procedure is that the recipient has to
take the penalty card to the receiver’s and pay the fine. Arrangements can be made where payment is concerned and the amount can also be lowered. Payments can be made at the Police Station in Philipsburg and the Persecutors office with a debit card. At the receiver’s office this can be done with cash. On August 5, 2016 another article appeared in the daily newspaper entitled; “Persecutor reminds public to pay outstanding fines”. In the article it states that
190,316 guilders was collected from fines issued by the Police Force of St. Maarten during the first month of 2016. It was an increase of 150% over 2015 when only 73,600 guilders was collected from the 188,500 guilders issued that year. However, an amount of 291,500 guilders in fines was issued in 2016. We can already notice that a large amount is still outstanding. On September 16, 2019 another article from the persecutor’s office “Strict controls from October
for failure to pay traffic fines”. In this article it was said that “The Minister of Justice in conjunction with the Persecutor’s office urged persons to settle these before the ending of the grace period which ended in October of 2019. It was said then that vehicles will be seized if you can’t pay immediately. He wonders how many vehicles were seized from 2019 to present.
Lastly, on July 21, 2021 another article written by the persecutor’s office, “3999 outstanding fines many could not be delivered. Persecutor’s office aims to collect 1.8 million guilders in outstanding fines but has great difficulty in tracking offenders. He wonders how many fines were issued from July 2021 to October 2022 and how much of the outstanding fines was collected. The possibility exists that the amount can be 2 million guilders. He has the following questions: How is the cooperation between the Dutch side and French side police when it comes to the giving of information, how many of the fines were given to vehicles with the French number plates. The government of St. Maarten is in dire need of finances in order to meet their social responsibilities. The Member is definitely in agreement with controls but it should also be turned into revenues. Although he knows this can be a very expensive investment, he thinks it is time that police vehicles be equipped with the necessary technology where they can digitally determine the status of persons by typing in a number plate/make of vehicle and get all the necessary information instead of having to call central. If one looks at the 1.8 million guilders outstanding as of 2019 it is clear to see that some 75% or more is still
outstanding. There needs to be a better system to collect fines.