COLE BAY–Police are searching for the culprit(s) they believe responsible for setting one of their vehicles on fire at a garage in Cole Bay in the early hours of Monday. The car was being worked on by the garage and was not in use by officers at the time of the arson.

The vehicle was part of Dutch police assistance to St. Maarten post-Hurricane Irma. Some 18 vehicles were sent to the island to assist the St. Maarten Police Force KPSM to combat crime. Several vehicles are not operational due to damage. Detectives are now looking for information about the vandalism of police property.

KPSM requested extra police vehicles, as a large number of the police cars in the fleet were heavily damaged during the passing of Hurricane Irma last year. The assistance was part of a Kingdom protocol to render assistance between the police forces of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten, and the Netherlands and BES islands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba). The cars were to increase visibility of the police on the streets at night and maintain the curfew put in place post-Irma.

Bron: Daily Herald