Short on resources, GPD appeals to senators

by Mindy Aguon

Guam - With crime on the rise, the Guam Police Department is inundated with calls every day all around the island. But being able to respond to those calls and patrol the streets daily is proving more and more challenging.  Understaffed, underequipped, underfunded and in a state of emergency, the Guam Police presented the realities of their current operations during an informational briefing before lawmakers this afternoon. And it wasn't pretty.

Senator Mike San Nicolas said, "So we only have thirteen cars that are operational for the entire island on patrol?" Police Captain Paul Suba responded, "That fluctuates a few more cars above that and that's all we have until we get the new fleet in."  The situation isn't much better when it comes to the number of officers out on patrol at any given time. Captain Suba continued, "The average is one supervisor, one desk watch, and four patrolmen for four precincts 24/7. And it can go as high as six in some precincts if we have some stay back and work overtime."

Of the 300 uniformed officers on the force, 120 are assigned to patrol the streets. But actually being able to respond to emergencies is proving more and more difficult.

Only thirteen of the department's forty-three patrol vehicles are actually operable leaving the department in dire straights. Senator Brant McCreadie questioned, "As far as vehicles are concerned, it is the Guam Police Department's opinion that we are in a state of emergency?", which Acting Police Chief Colonel Maurice Sayama confirmed. Suba clarified the freshman policymaker's question, saying, "Let's put it this way: the other day I saw a patrol officer using a Humvee from DRMO. And they use that as a last resort until they can get another vehicle."

The department is currently waiting on the deposit of $300,000 in Compact impact funding that was promised to it to purchase new vehicles and put more officers on the streets. Sayama said, "I believe yesterday Hagatna had a car and a half; if there's such an animal, patrolling the streets, maybe Tamuning had three. Of course, Dededo being the most populated, had three or two."

But getting more vehicles and hiring more officers all boils down to money. Captain Sonny Castro said, "It's a funding issue. Year after year we can tell you today and tomorrow and the day after we're short this amount. Do we get it? Obviously not.  Do we provide the required service? We do our best."

Sayama noted, "No matter what has been said about the state of our department, the men and women of this department continue to do whatever we can with what we've got. We're gonna get the bad guys. We've gotten the bad guy for every major case that has come up within the past few months."

GPD has agreed to review some of its mandates and identify potential areas that can be eliminated to increase efficiency and allow officers additional time to respond to actual emergency calls.

The force is looking to increase some of its fees to help recover some costs but until a permanent funding source is identified, the emergency situation for the Guam Police will remain status quo.