‘Officers should be held at a high standard’

In light of a police officer being accused of pointing a gun at a suspect, Department of Public Safety Commissioner Anthony Macaranas said he does not tolerate misconduct among his ranks and that DPS should be held at a high standard.

“I do not tolerate any misconduct, police misconduct, especially in the face of the community. We are held at a high standard to assure that the public is well protected by officers that took the oath to serve and protect the community,” he said during media conference yesterday at the DPS Central in Susupe.

Macaranas added police officer Troy Anthony Taman Manahane’s actions are not acceptable and that DPS will continue to mitigate some of these issues.

“The public should not be intimidated. If there’s any misconduct, you are to come forward and report those things up to my office or to the NMI Crime Stopper, and like I said, these kinds of practices I took seriously to investigate and to find other ways how we can assure the community that we’re keeping our officers in line of their responsibility.”

He said Manahane had been serving the department for around five years and so his misconduct can’t be blamed on being a new police officer.

“Irregardless, if you’re just brand new, the moment that you raise your right hand and you took your oath to serve and protect the community, that day starts that you have to be held at a higher standard than anybody. And the community looks upon us to assure that we continue to hold to standard. Even I myself will be held at a higher standard to do my job.”

Asked why it took nine months for Manahane’s arrest since the alleged gun-pointing incident occurred in January, Macaranas said the case stalled at the Office of Attorney General.

“It’s outside of my knowledge as to how that took long, but ultimately the case went through.”

After the gun-pointing allegations, Manahane was placed on administrative/desk duty and had not been on the streets since then. Manahane was also said to have had his issued firearm confiscated.

Court documents mentioned Manahane’s partner, who witnessed the incident, had at first not mentioned anything due to fear, in part for seeing a seasoned officer act in such a manner, and second for fear of “being labeled a snitch and ridiculed by other officers for reporting misconduct,” said Macaranas.

When asked about the stigma surrounding officers reporting misconduct, Macaranas responded, “Is it right for the officer that witnessed another officer committing a crime not to report it? My answer is no. The officer will be uncomfortable because it is utmost [important] that he reports this. Because we cannot be labelled as cover-ups. We cannot allow cover-ups in the department because that’s how the integrity of our office is diminished. Because when things are reported by the citizen against a police officer and we don’t do anything, the respect of the department is attributed to be less because now we’re giving the impression to the community that we’re covering up even the wrongdoing of the officer.”

In regards to the officer who confirmed allegations with his testimony, he said “the officer is safe. Of course, we’re taking steps to assure that this officer is not intimidated by other police officers because of this. I assure that my command staff have talked down to their supervisors to assure that these practices should not be happening within their watch and not only during the watch, but even in their personal time.”

Macaranas also tackled the issue of burnout among police officers and it being a reason for Manahane’s alleged misconduct.

“I look upon the officers to say that if they’re showing signs of any burnout, that they have to come up to their supervisors and explain themselves that they need help. Ultimately, we’re not in a position to read officers’ minds and what stress level they’re in. But again, I have the supervisors take it upon themselves to make sure they monitor their officers and assure that any signs of stress, any signs of their health deteriorating, to find solutions and find ways how to help these officers in those matters.”

He said DPS has a counselor from the Department of Corrections that occasionally comes by and checks upon the supervisors to see if any officers need any kind of services to mitigate some of the stress that they’re going through.

“So that’s the nice thing about it. I have her coming down here. But the other thing too, I have two sergeants that are communicating with the [Community Guidance Center] to open up some scheduled sessions with some of the officers and see what they are going through,” he said.