Sint Maarten – Police promotes “Stop, Drop and Go” project at secondary school

On Friday October 24th at 7.30 a.m. the Community Police Officer for the Sint Peters and Reward area Inspector Felix Richards and the Police Public Relation officer Inspector Ricardo Henson visited the Sint Maarten Academy PSVE – secondary school in Ebenezer Estate to give a small presentation.

The presentation was order to continue promoting the “Stop, Drop and Go” project which is presently ongoing. This joint project, organized between the French and Dutch justice departments, encourages persons on both side of the island to voluntarily surrender their illegal fire-arm without fear of being prosecuted. The project started officially on October 15th 2014 and will end on October 31st 2014. The project is designed to rid as much illegal fire-arms as possible from the streets and this is mainly due to the large amount and the increase in the amount of violent criminal activity involving fire-arms. By bringing this message to all schools and mainly the secondary schools, we believe that this message will quickly be spread among the youth which is also the main target group. The project so far has been quite successful because of the constant flow of illegal fire-arms being turned in at the Attorney Generals office located on the third floor of the Puerta Del Sol Plaza on Welfare road.  

During the presentation at the school the students listened attentively to the information which officer Richards shared with them regarding the dangers of guns and the consequence it may have when they are used against each other. The students were also quite impressed with the very positive gingle promoting the “Stop, Drop and Go” project which was written, composed and sang by a local youngster by the name of Rumari Rogers. This gingle can be heard daily on several local radio stations which so far have been well accepted by radio listeners.

The presentation ended with officer Richards handing out promotional and information flyers. Promotional red white and blue rubber wristbands engraved with black letters “Stop, Drop & Go” were given to the students and teachers who attended the presentation. The intention is to visit all secondary schools to give this presentation and share all information with the students.