WILLEMSTAD – The Gerecht in Eerste Aanleg van Curaçao has ruled that it is acceptable for the Korps Politie Curaçao (KPC) to have produced no independent annual reports since 2018. As a result, internal accountability of the police remains structurally outside the scope of public access. This follows from a judgment in a case concerning a request for disclosure under the Landsverordening openbaarheid van bestuur.
The case was brought by Max Martina, who had requested copies from the Minister of Justice of the KPC’s annual reports for the years 2018 through 2023. The minister responded that such annual reports do not exist and that the police force only provides operational crime statistics, which are incorporated into the annual reports of the ministry and of the government of Curaçao.
The court found that the minister had initially failed to sufficiently substantiate the decision rejecting the request. For that reason, the decision was annulled. However, the court allowed the legal consequences to remain in effect, as it became clear during and after the hearing that the KPC has not compiled its own annual reports since 2018 and that the requested documents therefore do not exist.
In its ruling, the court confirmed that the government cannot be obliged to disclose documents that do not exist. In practice, this means that only statistical crime data are made public through ministerial annual reports. Information concerning internal police matters—such as organizational structure, personnel policy, training, and internal challenges—remains outside the realm of public accountability.
The Minister of Justice was ordered to reimburse the court fee paid by the applicant and to pay compensation for copying costs incurred, due to the lack of due care in the original decision-making process. The ruling may still be appealed before the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie.