Police Chief Steve Ignacio hopes to solve personnel shortage, pedestrian death issues

Steve Ignacio loves investigating crimes.

Growing up in Merizo, Ignacio never intended to become a police officer. But when his friend, who had just joined the force, invited him to become an officer too, Ignacio was intrigued. Plus, as an officer he’d be making double the $3.35 minimum wage he was earning at Sizzler’s at the time.

“So I was like, ‘Sign me up,’” Ignacio said with a laugh.

Now, 31 years later, Ignacio runs the department.

“When I joined the Guam Police Department, I found I had a passion for what I was doing,” Ignacio said.

Through this career, Ignacio found he had an affinity for criminal investigations. There’s a satisfaction that comes with solving a crime, making an arrest and easing the worries of a community by taking a bad person off the streets, Ignacio said.

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“I really enjoy being here. I love the people I work with,” Ignacio said. “Man, I really love what I do.”

Part of Ignacio’s three decades of experience include years on patrol, years investigating a multitude of crimes, years logged under the Highway Patrol Division, time with Internal Affairs and some years in the administrative divisions.

Ignacio takes the helm at GPD as Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio settle into their seats at Adelup. Leon Guerrero appointed Ignacio to succeed Joseph I. Cruz.

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Increasing officers

Topping the list of Ignacio’s priorities? Beefing up the police force.

Ignacio remembers when the department had some 400 uniformed officers serving the island in the 1990s. Now, there are 279 uniformed GPD officers. Ideally, Ignacio said he’d like to have 26 officers out on patrol at all hours of the day, islandwide

“We’ve looked at everywhere that we can pull a police officer, whatever his rank is, and put them out on patrol,” Ignacio said. “And we’re still short.”

Currently GPD is scheduling a minimum of four officers on patrol for each of the four precincts, but sometimes there’s less. Officers may call in sick or can’t work some days because they have military duties.

“And so we’re having to pull other officers to work overtime or we’re having to pull from other precincts and kind of shuffle people around,” Ignacio said.

Slump in recruitment

At the same time, GPD is facing some challenges with recruitment. There are 37 recruits now.

Ignacio recently learned those candidates were gleaned from a pool of 250. He said he’s met with the Department of Administration and will work with it to find out why so many potential recruits were weeded out early in the process.

Additionally, Ignacio is calling on retirees to supplement the GPD workforce. There’s a provision in this fiscal year’s budget to pay for retired police officers to come back and serve and still collect their retirement benefits, Ignacio said.

Drug interdiction

Ignacio said more personnel would help GPD fight the drug abuse problem on island.

While it might not bear the Mandaña name under Ignacio’s leadership, the new chief said the police department will still have a drug interdiction team.

Over the years, GPD’s called the drug investigation unit different things, but the mission has remained the same, Ignacio said.

“It doesn’t matter what you call it,” Ignacio said. “I probably intend to change the name, but the focus should always be there. We should always have a drug investigation unit at all times, because drug investigations go hand in hand with a lot of other crimes committed.”

Deaths ‘troubling’

One staggering crime statistic was the number of pedestrians killed last year on Guam’s roads.

“That is troubling to see that from 2017 to 2018 we went from four pedestrian fatalities to 14. That’s over 300 percent increase in a 12-month time span,” Ignacio said. “That’s highly unusual. We need to nail that down and figure out what are the causes of such a high rate. We just shot way past normal.”

Ignacio said he’ll meet with other officials, such as road engineers, the Office of Highway Safety and GPD’s highway investigators to find out how to work to reduce pedestrian deaths in the future.

This article originally appeared on Pacific Daily News: Police Chief Steve Ignacio hopes to solve personnel shortage, pedestrian death issues