by Sabrina Salas Matanane
Guam - Speaker Judi Won Pat and Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz have
introduced legislation that would appropriate $481,000 to the Guam Police
Department to purchase brand new police vehicles. "Everyone is saying and
the legislature has taken the position too that education, health and public
safety are our top priority, so that's when the idea came about where we should
consider then appropriating the monies to be used to purchase police vehicles,"
said the speaker.
According to the bill, the funding would come from the same pot of
money being used to purchase security cameras for Department of Education
schools. It was during a recent briefing at the Legislature, GPD told senators
they were in a state of emergency with only ten cars to patrol the entire
island and another ten waiting to be repaired. After that briefing Senator
Brant McCreadie requested that senators lapsed funds be used to repair some of
the vehicles.
"Yes you can always kind of do small type repairs here and
there, and its, but if you can address that in a larger act or legislation then
I think this would be the route to go," he said.
