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Parents of juvenile detainees want DPS Commish to address the shortage of manpower

Police Commissioner Le’i Sonny Thompson
Female counselors — even the janitor — have been keeping watch over the teens
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Parents of some of the teens detained at the Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) in Tafuna are calling out to Police Commissioner Le’i Sonny Thompson, to take quick action in resolving a two-month-old problem: a shortage of officers for the JDC at night.

Samoa News was told by one parent that for months now, between 6p.m and 6 a.m. there are no cops to guard the juveniles.

“The only two people assigned to work the night shift from 6p.m. to 6a.m are the two female counselors — who are not police officers,” said one parent, adding that she is very concerned for the safety of her son, currently held at the JDC.

“This is not good for me, as a parent, because the safety of my son — and all other juveniles who are detained at the JDC — is more important to us parents. We have seen things happen in the past where JDC police officers were arrested for illegal activities inside the facility, involving some juveniles. I don’t want that problem to repeat because of the lack of manpower at the JDC right now.”

According to the parent, her son told her that all police officers sign off at 6p.m. because they work 12-hour shifts, and the female counselors watch over the JDC during the night shift.

The parent said there was a time when one of the female counselors allowed all nine juveniles to mingle together inside the cafeteria at night, which is something that should not have happened.

When asked for comment, an official at the JDC echoed the parent’s story to Samoa News, regarding the shortage of officers.

“Right now, the JDC situation is bad because we have a shortage of manpower,” the official said, adding that one of the reasons is because, too many cops have resigned from DPS since the beginning of this year.

The official explained that are cops assigned to the JDC work 12-hour shifts from 6a.m. to 6p.m. and they are relieved by the female counselors who take over the next 12 hours.

The official said there was one point when the JDC janitor was asked to work the night shift — to guard the juveniles — because there was no one available to take the shift. The official went on to say that the reason why some of the officers assigned to the JDC, including the janitor, had resigned, was because they worked 12-hour shifts but the government never paid their overtime hours.

A senior officer at DPS confirmed to Samoa News that over the last two months, a lot of cops have resigned due to some in-house issues that have never been resolved, including overtime, comp time, and some unfair decision-making at the top level.

According to the officer who wished not to be named, one of the things that can prove the lack of manpower at DPS is the announcement for the DPS Vice & Narcotics Unit to go back on the line to fill in the gaps.

“The Vice & Narcotics Units was established to combat the problem of illegal drugs, firearms and many other high profile crimes in the territory; but right now, all members of that unit are back on the line to work as patrol officers due to the shortage of police officers on the field,” the senior police officer said, adding that the problem will never be cured until the administration does the right thing, and that is, “pay overtime hours for cops who work more than 8 hours every day to protect the community.”

A member of the DPS Vice & Narcotics Units confirmed to Samoa News that team members of their unit are now working as patrol cops on different shifts pursuant to an order from the police commissioner, to accommodate the need for more officers on the road — day and night.

The cop said despite their busy schedule with the Patrol Division right now, they are still working as a team to fulfill their task, which is fighting the illegal drug problem in the territory.