By Staff Writer
Having a police car parked right up to the open front doors of any building can easily be an alarming sight in any normal day as seen in the photo above.
For a police vehicle driven all the way in, as if to deliberately block the main front entrance into the building can easily set off the imagination on a wild run for the unsuspecting public.
On closer inspection though, several police officers are seen sitting around relaxed as if they were resting up which in fact they were.
The Ministry of Police has taken over the Maota i Petesa headquarters of the opposition Human Rights Protection Party, HRPP, as a staging camp for officers on lockdown duties.
The majority of law enforcement officers have been grinding away the hours on shift work around the clock to man the road blocks set up mostly around Apia to control public movement.
It is more than 2 straight weeks now since the COVID lockdown started and the police are allowed a short breather in the few hours the lock down is lifted on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
A few more hours are added with Thursday now included.
“The acting Commissioner of Police requested our assistance for a place their officers can rest up and regroup for their rotating staff working on shifts and we were happy to help out,” HRPP Secretary Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi explained.
The HRPP Petesa headquarters is one of several staging locations for on duty officers around the Apia urban township.