Lt. Colonel Manzoni (right) at his leaving party at Fort Louis Yacht Club with General Jean-Marc Descoux. (Photo Robert Luckock).
MARIGOT–Lieutenant Colonel Sébastien Manzoni, who leaves St. Martin on August 12 to take on a new challenge in planning and crisis management with Centre de Planification et de Gestion de Crise (CPGC) at the Direction Générale of the Gendarmerie at Issy Les Molineaux, reflected on the factors that helped reduce crime on the French side during an interview with The Daily Herald.
His new job puts him as head of a small team charged with operational missions for major civilian events (the recent D-Day anniversary celebration is an example) but also to respond to and advise local Gendarmerie commanders in the event of crisis situations.
After handling the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, it is a job that he should be well suited for. Irma, he readily admits, despite the preparations, was “far worse than expected” and presented him with the biggest challenge of his career.
Ironically, the same unit that Manzoni is joining in Paris was deployed to St. Martin just after Irma to advise on strategy. The unit is part of a bigger department of approximately 40 persons, each with specialist skills in different fields.
“It is a job that I requested,” he said. “In the past 15 years in the Gendarmerie I have always been in the field on the operational side, so this is a completely new challenge for me to be working in the headquarters of the Gendarmerie.”
He revealed that before St. Martin he spent eight years with regional SWAT teams, first in Guadeloupe and then in the South of France, gaining experience in dealing with hostage or counter-terrorism threats.
No doubt that experience also contributed to his handling of the CTOS strikes and blockades where he demonstrated his ability to adapt to local culture, talking face-to-face with demonstrators to calm tense situations while making sure Gendarmes did not use unnecessary force.
Figures show that between 2015 and 2018, physical violence dropped by 70 per cent (from 129 armed robberies down to 40) in St. Martin while burglaries also dropped by 58 per cent. There were no homicides in 2017 and 2018.
“When I arrived in 2015 the situation was difficult, something like 110 armed robberies and 10 homicides per year,” Manzoni said. “My predecessors, of course, did their job but the figures were not good. What was interesting is that when I started, we also had a new Prosecutor [Michaël Ohayon – Ed.] followed by Yves Paillard, Préfète Anne Laubies had just started, and I had a new Deputy and a new head of the Detectives (CID).
“We were all new but there was a very good feeling between all of us with this one goal in mind to reduce crime. We changed the method of working from before and little-by-little we were able to achieve good results with a lot of hard work.”
Cooperation with the Dutch side has also been a factor in this success, helped by the timing of the Police Cooperation Cross Border Treaty coming into force.
“Personally, I worked a lot on daily cooperation with the Dutch side,” Manzoni adds. “But I also urged my deputies and heads of department to identify the counterparts in their tasks on the Dutch side to organise visits and exchange information. They did their best, even though it was difficult for some of them not speaking much English.
“From that, I consider cooperation with KPSM [St. Maarten Police Force] continues on a daily basis. Improvements such as having a Dutch-side police radio in our Dispatch Center and the possibility to have cross-border pursuits have all contributed to these results.”
Another change was his instruction to Gendarmes to be more visible to the population and to circulate on foot in sensitive areas such as Sandy Ground and French Quarter to stimulate dialogue with the residents.
“I can say now that Gendarmes in uniform are accepted everywhere. Yes, there have been isolated incidents of insult against Gendarmes but generally the contact between Gendarmes and the population is quiet and peaceful. It’s one of the keys to our success, and dialoguing with the district council representatives.”
He said one of his main regrets was not being able to work more on regional cooperation with other islands, since crime tends to permeate through the region, whether it is from drug trafficking, organised crime or human smuggling.
“Delinquency is regional. But this is difficult to set up, you need specific structures and a special office where you would meet once a month. I am hoping in the coming months an office will be set up for KPSM [St. Maarten Police Force] and the Gendarmerie at the border for daily cooperation. This is a first step. I am convinced we have to cooperate regionally to fight against car theft and trafficking of [car] parts for example. That’s a difficult one to solve.”
Manzoni said following recent joint meetings he expected Dutch-side police and Gendarmes to be much more proactive on preventing looting should another hurricane occur and to clamp down on “sight-seeing” traffic that hindered the work of emergency vehicles. He disclosed that Liaison Officers (one from the Dutch side in the Gendarmerie, and French one on the Dutch side) were appointed to facilitate exchange of information during a hurricane.
Asked what he is most proud of during his four years in St. Martin, he replied, “to be commandant of the Gendarmerie here and in St. Barths. I have been very privileged to work with my deputies and all my Gendarmes. All of them have been equally responsible for the success we have had before, during and after Irma.”
For a young officer, age 40, Manzoni’s credentials have already put him on a career trajectory for more success. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 2016. He was also decorated with the Gendarmerie Medal (silver star) in June 2018, which was followed a month later by the Chevalier de Légion d’ Honneur. Both awards were for his work after Hurricane Irma.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/88973-manzoni-good-synergy-between-partners-helped-reduce-crime-rate
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