FAMILY SEXUAL VIOLENCE UNIT OFFICE FOR 7-MILE POLICE

By VONU LIBITINO

THE 7 Mile Police Station in Port Moresby, now boasts a Family Sexual Violene Unit (FSVU), adding to the 8 other units in police stations in the Nation’s Capital.

Previously, the FSVU Officers would sit out in the open space and attend to complaints.

This latest FSVU was established with help from the Rotary Club of Port Moresby who refurbished a shipping container and transformed it into an office space.

Speaking to media, following the official opening of this new unit, FSVU Director Superintendent Delilah Sandeka said this now provides a comfortable space for both officers and victims, to receive and deal with complaints.

“As one of the 9 Police Stations offering services, we have our own set of challenges however the main challenge is the shortage of human resources,

We only have two officers manning this new unit; one a sergeant and the other a first constable.

You will see the same thing in our other offices across the city… we try to distribute our offices across all the units in the city, to make our services more accessible for women in the suburbs,” Superintendent Delilah Sandeka said.

She also explained the majority of the FSVU officers are female with the exception of a few men.

The Superintendent added that the human resource shortage is a result of the current structure in place.

“Structure comes with position and the motivation needed, to remain attached to a position where officers can benefit from better salary packages and career advancements.

Our new structure has already been approved by the Police Commissioner David Manning and his executives and is now being implemented through the Department of Personnel Management.

Once our structure is approved, I believe it will attract a lot of officers to come and work with us,” Superintendent Sandeka said.

She also expressed that the work they do is quite challenging and they need dedicated and committed officers who must be compensated well for their efforts.

Despite the shortfall in adequate manpower, the FSVU continues to operate, often dealing with 10 to 20 complaints every day.

“Our officers are trained to be good listeners, to have a lot of patience and understanding towards the victims.

Their training is important and we make sure to provide capacity building workshops the officers can learn about change in legislations like the Family Protection Act, the Criminal Code Act, so they can then attend to complaints appropriately,”

Superintendent Sandeka said.

The FSVU Director also revealed in the interview that of the 9 FSVUs in the city, only 3 units have a vehicle.

“The rest of the 6 Police Stations do not have vehicles and this makes it very hard to attend of our victims, especially if they come with children and leave all their belongings at their homes and are too scared to return on their own to pick up their belongings.

And if we need to bring the victims to a safe house or to the hospital, it’s very hard.

We need a vehicle because it is a very important aid to the work that we do and to help our officers reach out to victims as soon as possible and appropriately and we need a vehicle for each unit in the city and the country as well,” Superintendent Sandeka