\n\t\t\t\tDamaged patrol bikes sit in a pile with other unusable equipment under the Tourism Oriented Policing Section of the \u00a0Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nLaunched in early 2000 with the support of Duty Free Saipan, Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Marianas Visitors Authority, the decline of the TOPS operation was due to the inevitable wear and tear of the bikes and lack of funding for maintenance and procurement of new ones. It was reestablished around 2013 when the DPS commissioner assigned a facility in Lower MIHA to function as their main office, but still due to its limited financial backing, some bike patrol officers had to purchase their own bikes and equipment for patrol use.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the activity of the police bike patrol program was hampered due to the damage caused by Typhoon Soudelor to the container used for the bikes\u2019 storage. The 20-foot container flipped over from the wind\u2019s brutal force, resulting in the bikes being mangled and damaged, rendering most of them nonfunctional.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the storm, we secured all our equipment in the container; and when it flipped over, it damaged all that was in it. The heavy shelving fell on the bikes,\u201d said CBI detective Jesse Dubrall. \u201cComponents of the bikes are quite sensitive. The impact bent all the frames and broke all the components, pretty much damaging all the personal and police-issued bikes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A consolidated effort between DPS, CBI, and Best Sunshine led by DPS Commissioner James Deleon Guerrero, CBI commander Jeff Olopai, and BSI director for corporate social responsibility Rita Chong is underway to revive the flagging bike patrol program whose primary goal, according to DPS detective Flora Aguon, \u201cis to prevent crime and to make the public feel secure in a safe environment, particularly the tourists. We want to make sure that tourists in particular are protected so that they don\u2019t go back home and say that Saipan is a dangerous place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tourists really enjoy the bikes and UTVs. They take pictures of it and sometimes get on it because they don\u2019t have this type of police program back where they\u2019re from, and they enjoy the novelty of it,\u201d added Dubrall.<\/p>\n
Chong said: \u201cVisibility of patrol officers on bikes and UTVs will deter crime in the Garapan district and will be a model for succeeding programs in all the other villages throughout Saipan. Not only is TOPS successful in its mobility and access, this policing program makes DPS approachable and friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to reach out to other organizations and corporate partners to donate and help out the Department of Public Safety\u2019s TOPS patrol program in reviving this policing service that has such an outstanding impact in crime prevention,\u201d Chong added.<\/p>\n
Chong can be contacted through BSI Corporate Social Responsibility office at telephone number 588-6609. (BSI)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best Sunshine International, Ltd. is working closely with the Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":215072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3270,35,215,8323],"class_list":["post-215069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cbi","tag-dps","tag-public-safety","tag-tops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}