WILLEMSTAD - According to Member of Parliament Jeser El Ayoubi, it is regrettable that a 'voice message' that was intended for internal police communication has become public. "But we have to look at the broader picture," said El Ayoubi.

El Ayoubi responds to a voice note circulating on social media in which police officer Imro Zwerwer can be heard expressing his concerns about what is wrong with the police force. According to Zwerwer, these problems need urgent attention. Zwerwer mainly talks about the lack of leadership and guidance within the force, especially in these times when the police must pay extra attention to compliance with the corona measures.

According to Zwerwer, the agents take to the streets, but they often do not quite know what is expected of them, because they are not correctly asssisted by the emergency room. The senior officials also do not seem to know how it all works, Zwerwer says in the message.

As an example, Zwerwer mentions that many police officers are not aware that there are two different forms for an official report. In addition, there is also a shortage of these forms. Officers often have to search different police stations and call on colleagues to obtain the forms so that they can carry out their work.

Finally, Zwerwer says in the voice that agents far too often do not take the correct measures when they discover a violation of the corona measures. According to Zwerver, for example, far too often shops that are open long after the permitted opening time are given a warning while they must be closed and should be fined.

The message that Zwerwer had spoken was intended for internal use by the police force, but somehow it ended up on social media.

According to El Ayoubi, not too much should be said about the fact that the message has been leaked, but about what is said in it. "In the voice you can hear in detail how there is a lack of a number of fundamental elements within the force. Urgent attention must be paid to this," said the parliamentarian.

El Ayoubi also says that solutions must be found quickly for the problems. "Otherwise, the service level of the police force will never rise to a higher level. As a result, the police will not be able to provide a good service to society and to protect the population."

The functioning of the force is in any case the attention of the Council for Law Enforcement. Recently, the Council published a report indicating that the police had to contend with a lack of material resources as early as 2015, which made it unable to solve a larger number of robberies, among other things.

In addition, the Council noted a shortage of personnel and detention capacity. The Council made various recommendations in 2015. A recent investigation, which was done by the Board to determine to what extent the recommendations from the 2015 inspection report have been followed up, has shown that the availability of sufficient material resources is still a bottleneck within the Curaçao Police Force.