TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Government plans country wide camera system

Seems like this would be very expensive. What about all the other things they were talking about, like banning scooters in certain areas, etc??

I thought the same thing. Maybe they are thinking this option vs increasing police patrols.
As for the Scooters how would they be able to enforce it, chase them on their bike's

I think it would be pretty easy to enforce the scooters thing. If there are supposed to be NO scooters in a certain area, they can stop anyone that is there on a scooter, period. It's not like the bicycle patrols are the only cops on island. Even if they don't actually catch them at the time, if they get the description of the scooter, a regular police car could pull them over later, depending on how the law was written. If I were going to write such a law, I would write it that operating the scooter in a prohibited area is cause for forfeiture of the scooter..

Cameras are not much of a crime deterrent. They can help the prosecution though.

And cameras require electricity. Hello GEBE?

As for enforcing the scotter ban. There are alot more scotters ( lots) than police. So I think that would be hard to enforce. And the scotters can bypass traffic and go back to the French side quickly.

SXM??? Wendell

I still think that if the law is written that the scooter can be seized if it is in a prohibited area, that it would work. Also, don't forget private citizens would also know that scooters are prohibited in an area, and they would pay a lot of attention to any scooter in the area AND to those riding them. I think it would be a huge help.

Wow, an awful lot of negative nellys here!

Same thing happened when they announced the new causeway and the new Orient Beach buildings. Anything new brings out the negative commentators.

No, the point is that this camera thing will cost a LOT of money, which they don't have. They claim they don't have money to do even simple things, like making sure that every police officer has a bullet proof vest that fits and is still in good repair. And then they announce a pie in the sky thing that will cost the earth and will be difficult to keep working because of--I don't know--salt, heat, moisture, GEBE, etc..