Bonaire Crime - Our experience - Looking for input to share

[salth2owannabe]

So, after all these posts, has anyone actually done anything about this?
And of course I do not mean opening up a private security company on the island.
I am going to send a link to this thread to various authorities in Bonaire, and see what their reaction is .... or not. Has this been tried before? I will do the intro in Dutch.

PS: Just back from 2 weeks in Bonaire. Not a single problem .... if you discount the ridiculous cost of dining out But then again we did not stay in a vacation home, but in a walled apartment complex.

I spoke with the President of BONHATA a couple of times on the island. He had asked me to send him information as well as specific information to our incident, and I've done that. I've also sent information to an individual on the island who is active in the community, who is in the process of creating a website for information exchange regarding crime. This individual was also going to try to involve the various groups to have a more unified voice to try to get something done locally and also petition the respective gov officials. I searched the board and found 193 topic posts on crime on Bonaire. I've forwarded some of the comments specific to affecting dive travel choices and choosing to go elsewhere.

I felt safe on Bonaire prior to this incident and I felt safe on Bonaire after this incident. I didn't feel safe in the rental house after the burglary, but the reasons for that can be addressed and I'd stay in the home again.There are a few islands and countries I've been to I wouldn't say that about.

 

[The Chairman]

has anyone actually done anything about this?

The same thing I try and do all the time when I travel to dive: I travel as part of a group. Both times I have been to Bonaire have been with a large ScubaBoard group. With a large group, we almost always have one person sitting out the dive and the shore stays busy enough to keep the jerks away. We usually get our way with the dive ops too and the boats are less crowded rather than more. To me, this makes the most sense.

 

[Kharon]

So - you hear a strange noise in the middle of the night that doesn't belong, in a strange place where you are aware that there is some theft crime, and you don't get up and investigate? And you are a cop for 25 years?

Also, even in the suburban, relatively crime free, not understaffed town I live in, the police wouldn't do more than the Bonaire cops did. This kind of crime is relatively unsolvable without a picture of the criminal or a witness that can ID them. Amost all crimes like this are solved by accident when the criminal makes a dumb mistake - like trying to sell a stolen item to a cop - unlikely on a small island where the criminals probably know every cop by sight.

 

[wwguy]

Bonaire hired a new police chief in May 2013, ostensibly to get a handle on rising crime. During her career in the Netherlands she was a motorcycle cop in the 70's and then a detective in the relatively remote Zeeland province. Everyone was very excited when she was hired because finally Bonaire was getting a "real police chief" that was beyond influence of entrenched local culture and grift. Ironically that turned out to work against her. Apparently she never fit into Bonairean culture very well and there were rumors and anonymous letters written that she was making local citizens uncomfortable, including her own police force. I'm not privy to specific details. I'm just sharing what I read in English and Dutch internet news articles. Apparently she didn't inspire confidence in Bonairean citizens or police force.

I recently read in the Bonaire Reporter that she resigned (as expected) on March 1st. The position is still open if anyone with law enforcement experience is interested.

 

[mmmbelows]

on a small island where the criminals probably know every cop by sight.

... and the cops likely already have a really good idea or a short list of who the likely suspects are...

 

[mmmbelows]

Apparently she never fit into Bonairean culture very well and there were rumors and anonymous letters written that she was making local citizens uncomfortable, including her own police force. Apparently she didn't inspire confidence in Bonairean citizens or police force.

I recently read in the Bonaire Reporter that she resigned (as expected) on March 1st.

Likely they did everything they could to stonewall an outsider who was trying to make radical changes to an ingrained culture on the police force of turning a blind eye to the criminals who were relatives

 

[Pedroinspain]

Herewith the first reply to my queries sent out to important people in the tourist industry, to the local police and to the Bonaire tourist authorities. This one is from a prominent resort owner:

"Regarding crime the tourist industry is very aware. We have had many meetings with the police and government with no acceptable results. It is the police who are fault. They are 100% reactive. We have no pro-active policing. They should be out all night in force patrolling but will not. Many excuses none of which are valid. It is s sad situation but we just have to live with it here."

So for those who love their return visits to Bonaire, and who lament this situation and that described in recent posts above, if you all sent an email to the Bonaire Tourist authorities (as many copied as you can Google) and to the police, then maybe, as Bonaire's main client, you voice could stir improvement.
I have tried to do my bit, by copying them this link and the above reaction of a resort manager (name obviously withheld).

Police: politie@politiecn.com

Bonaire Tourism authority: info@tourismbonaire.com

BONHATA (Bonaire tourist industry representatives): info@tourismbonaire.com

 

[drrich2]

How much difference will patrolling make? However many police there are, I would imagine it'd be fairly easy to avoid being seen entering a residence, and cops don't have x-ray vision once you're there.

From WWGuy told us, the legal system there doesn't even allow you to grab a weapon and attack someone solely on the grounds of home invasion (e.g.: whack him over the head with a baseball bat), so criminals are practically a protected class. Hunting them down via detective work after-the-fact ranges from impractically difficult to impossible, showing up in time to catch them red-handed will be a rarity, victims & neighbors are intimidated from protecting their property by the very legal system that's mostly impotent against the criminals...

Yes, I suppose cop cars roaming the town roads at night might deter a little crime. But would it make enough of a difference to change things?

Richard.

 

[scubafanatic]

I haven't been back to Bonaire in about a decade, and never plan to return, these threads/reports reinforce my position. Even 10 years ago Bonaire's high crime reputation was well established, my sponsoring dive shop had one person volunteer to stand guard duty whenever the group went out and about, it's the only dive location I've done where the LDS has given me a briefing about the on site crime wave (things to do and things to avoid doing) and I'm on vacation to RELAX and not to have to constantly look over my shoulder at the locals, and feeling 'targeted'. I'm all about the diving and feel no need to mingle with the locals anyway, so I gravitate towards liveaboards, where I can better control my exposure time to the riff-raff.

 

[Pedroinspain]

I agree that the resort manager's suggestion that the police do more night patrolling is somewhat naive. That itself goes to show that "push" factors from the tourist industry representatives (themselves - as not being crime experts) will achieve little. One possibility is for BONHATA (which must be, or should be, extremely well funded/supported) could hire a credible expert consultant to investigate, not the cases, but the causes. This expert should preferably be Dutch (and preferable coffee-coloured ... sorry, but true; I lived there) and interview the ex lady police chief as a priority. In fact any competent organisational auditor could achieve much.

Police lack of resources / Police indifference /mafia clans / police involvement (as in South Africa iin the late 1990s) / lack of political support for proposals / closing of Island ranks / marketing and advertising of the problem [as we are doing here] plus, for instance, one proven investigative method in isolated communities, .... "follow the loot". There can only be so many outlets for regulators and dive torches, and if these are passing through customs ...., well .... I refuse to believe that the entire (local) Island is in cahoots. Somebody knows the nasty. I am betting as a start on that lady ex police chief.