Police manpower woes in NGI

 THE provincial police commanders in the New Guinea Islands has reported a shortage of manpower compared to the increasing population in the region.

Police officials from East New Britain, West New Britain, Manus and New Ireland highlighted these challenges during the NGI PPCs conference held in Kokopo, East New Britain, yesterday.

They said the current manpower in their provinces was too little compared to the growing population and the biggest contributing factor to that was the lack of accommodation for police officers in the province.

New Guinea Islands acting assistant commissioner police Anthon Billie said accommodation was the main problem right across the region.

He said there were plans to recruit more police personnel in the country but it was vital to put in place the necessary infrastructure to accommodate police officers.

In East New Britain, police station commander Insp Joe Duadak said the total manpower was 240 but the province needed more to be on par with the population, which stood at 255,000.

However, there was not enough police officers to be stationed at Palmalmal government station in Pomio.

West New Britain police commander Samson Siguyaru said the police manpower strength was 134 compared to the overall population of more than 300,000 and with a ratio of 1:2238. He said for frontline officers, it was one police officer to a shift.

“Most policemen are forced to transfer due to accommodation problems,” he said.

New Ireland police commander Phillip Welia said the province had a manpower of 107 compared to the population of 150,000 and most of the infrastructure was built in the colonial era and needed renovation.

In Manus, acting PSC Snr Sgt Lawrence reported that the manpower of 52 officers was low compared to the population of 72,000. 

ACP human resources Francis Tokura said the lack of manpower was faced nationwide and he would take the matter up with ACP Logistics.

“We can give you officers, many as you want, but we face problems with accommodation,” Tokura said. 

The five-year transfer policy is not being implemented due to lack of accommodation.”