Koban operations scaled down due to funding woes

Due to the limited number of police officers on Saipan, the Department of Public Safety has scaled down its operation in the island’s tourist district, according to Clyde Norita, DPS assistant chief of the Office for Special Services.

DPS no longer assigns police officers to regularly man the Koban in Garapan, especially on weekdays, for almost seven months now. The task of assigning police officers in the area was recently transferred to Boating Safety Commissioner Edward A. Cepeda.

At least two to three men from the Boating Safety visit the Koban in the evening from 6:00 p.m. until the business establishments close around 2:00 a.m.

“We made extra effort before to make sure there’s a police officer assigned there every night especially during the peak period. But we have a severe manpower problem now that we can no longer guarantee sending one to stay there specially on weekdays,” said Norita.

Everyday DPS has to dispatch 10 police officers every shift to patrol the island. The department has been trying to cut back on overtime but the lack of manpower has forced DPS to ask police officers to work 16 hours a day.

“Things get worse when a prisoner escapes since we have to activate the emergency team or when they have to attend training, take a vacation. There are times some are suspended or even go on AWOL. We are already scraping the bottom of the barrel to find manpower,” said Norita.

But on some occasions when the Boating Safety has to attend to its primary duty, the Koban is left to the responsibility of the police on patrol.

According to Cepeda, the Boating Safety is also having difficulty stretching its manpower assigned in the division, which is staffed only with seven police officers.

DPS dropped the Koban area in mid-April when a boatload of illegal Chinese immigrants arrived on Tinian, forcing the department to send 30 of its police officers in the island municipality to provide security.

With the rapid population growth brought about by the entry of nonresident workers, the demand for public safety service increased. Unfortunately, the number of policemen was not augmented to respond to the need of the community.

“We’re quite lucky because there’s no big crime that has happened in that area. But then again, we might eventually run out of luck. That’s why we need to plan and prepare the resources,” Norita said.

Some 29 young men and women are currently undergoing training at the Police Academy in a move to beef up the police force on the islands of Saipan, Rota and Tinian under the Community Oriented Policing Services, a federally-funded program.