Police appeal for help

MILNE Bay police do not have the resources to cover the entire maritime province, an official says.
Provincial police commander Supt Peter Barkie told The National that there had been increased reports of piracy in the province but his officers were unable to effectively patrol the waters as they only had one dinghy.
“Milne Bay is a maritime province with a vast body of water and lately, there has been an increase in piracy activities,” he said.
Supt Barkie said police were only able to attend to areas within Alotau and not the rest of the province.
“We only do follow up investigations and not interventions,” he said.
Supt Barkie said reinforcements would be deployed this weekend to hotspots in order to maintain law and order.
“The police being prepositioned out there will help to reduce our response time,” he said.
“Police do not have the resources to cover the whole province ,however, we acknowledge our local MPs for their assistance and that is why we can now preposition the police response teams at various locations.
Meanwhile, Supt Barkie said there were two reports of piracy received last Friday from a location about three hours by dinghy from Alotau.
He said police personnel were dispatched on Saturday morning to the location but the suspects had already gone.
He said his office received a second report that day of a piracy incident.
“Unfortunately, we could not respond to that because there was not enough fuel and my officers were already tired after a long day of travel,” Barkie said.