By Staff Writer
What started off with at least 4 to 5 duty officers per police road block during lockdown hours has dropped noticeably this week to just one in many of the selected locations around urban Apia.
The lonely figure of an officer sitting all alone inside a large tent was strikingly noticeable in the last few days, on the drive past several roadblocks into Apia from Vaitele, all the way out to the Malifa intersection.
Police Deputy Commissioner, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo, is yet to comment on Newsline Samoa’s enquiries into the ‘on-man-band’ duty roster change.
A junior officer when asked for a comment said that many of them were held in isolation these past few weeks and are being rostered direct into duty when released.
The policing of lockdowns in the last two weeks up until Tuesday have been 24 hour duty runs on top of regular responsibilities for a law enforcement force of around 800 officers.
With the service fully stretched it is unclear if there have been any threatening worries on other criminal activities without the normal number of officers to share the workload.
If there is a bright side to the long hours of police round the clock roadblock duties, it is having portable toilets nearby for their convenience.
There were none in previous lockdowns.