by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Legislation has been introduced with the goal of putting more cops on our streets. With crime on the rise and police manpower levels on the decline with less than 300 uniform officers, Senator Brant McCreadie has

Introduced legislation that would put another 20 officers on the street every year for 5 years. The legislation if passed, coupled with an 850 thousand dollar appropriation in the current year budget allowing for the recruitment of another 30 officers, would put another 130 officers on the streets.

"While tourism is our number one industry, our number one asset is our people and we can empower our people by protecting them and that is what as a lawmaker that I'm most concerned about and that's who I want to protect," the senator told KUAM News.

GPD has struggled in the last year to hire a dozen police officers to start a new cycle but Police Chief Fred Bordallo maintains it is a priority. "It's about making sure that we devote all our attention at looking at the applications, getting them through the written examination, screening them out and then getting them out to us where we expedite the background investigations and we have all our resources devoted to that," he explained.

Bordallo says the Department of Administration has been given notice to expedite the drug and psychological tests so that the new cycle can begin. Bill 263 also requires the chief to calculate the total cost for a recruitment cycle for each year, which would then be transmitted in the executive budget request to the Guam Legislature.