Renovated CBI building is formally opened

Department of Public Safety Commissioner James C. Deleon Guerrero, third from right, leads the special guests at the ribbon cutting for the newly renovated Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation Building in Susupe yesterday. From left are CNMI courts acting director Sonia Camacho, CNMI Probation chief Ursula L. Aldan, Drug Enforcement Administration resident agent-in-charge Mike Puralewski, Rep. George Camacho, Deleon Guerrero, Chief Prosecutor Leonardo Rapadas, and Fr. Rey Rosal. (Ferdie Dela Torre)

The Department of Public Safety officially opened yesterday its newly renovated Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation Building behind the DPS Bureau of Motor Vehicle in Susupe.

DPS Commissioner James C. Deleon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune that less than $5,000 was spent on the project because members of their Logistics division, along with inmates from the Department of Corrections, worked on the repairs and repainting of the whole building. Less than $2,500 was used to buy paint, plumbing, and roof sealant materials and about $2,300 was spent for the signage and computer wirings.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Deleon Guerrero said members of DPS Bureau of Infrastructure and Mission Support along with CBI detectives worked together on the renovation.

“I congratulate you all and finally, you have a place with a reasonable degree of close access to the Commonwealth courts, the prosecutor’s office and the Department of Corrections,” Deleon Guerrero told DPS personnel at the ceremony.

He disclosed that the building is now wired with the necessary computer hardware and fiber optic cables to connect the department’s information systems to their servers.

Over the coming months, he said, DPS will also be deploying a new investigative case management system so that they may begin the process of automating the department’s criminal investigative records, among other improvements planned for the CBI.

The building used to be the Department of Corrections’ Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Minimum Security. The facility is reportedly owned by the CNMI courts and DOC under a memorandum of understanding.

The building had been idle since early 2008 when DOC transferred all inmates from the old prison to its current building.

In late 2008, DPS officers volunteered their time to transform the RSAT into the new offices of the Criminal Investigation Division (now CBI) and Traffic Section.

CBI chief Fire Lt. Kevin Aldan said the building now houses five units: the Thievery, Arson, Robbery Enforcement Section; Major Crimes Investigation Section; Special Victims Investigation Section; Special Operations Section; and the Sexual Offender Registry Section.

“Since coming to this building we have made significant progress in our fight against the war on drugs,” Aldan said.

Among the guests at the ceremony were Chief Prosecutor Leonardo Rapadas, Drug Enforcement Administration agent-in-charge Mike Puralewski, Rep. George Camacho (R-Saipan), acting CNMI courts director Sonia Camacho, CNMI Probation chief Ursula L. Aldan, and press secretary Ivan Blanco.