HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Protecting life, the bottom dollar and Guam’s reputation as a safe travel destination could one day mean the public could watch what’s happening in Tumon from the comfort of their home, according to discussions at a Guam Visitors Bureau special task force meeting Friday.
GVB President Carl Gutierrez said the attorney general’s office is several months into the effort to install cameras throughout Tumon.
“He (Attorney General Douglas Moylan) has money from the opioid money that he’s going to provide to get the cameras up. He’s trying to work with (Department of) Public Works already, and that’s very good,” Gutierrez said.
Moylan confirmed and provided more information about the progress.
“Where we left off was getting an estimate of proposal. … (Guam Police Department) had the sites and the cameras that they could actually track every car coming in and out of Tumon. They have the technology to actually get license plates. That would have quickly resolved the situation that we faced,” Moylan said.
The effort requires collaboration with the Department of Public Works.
“They’re the ones that have the jurisdiction over most of the power poles out there. They were looking at the streetlights as having the ability to communicate with a siren that would be on certain cameras as well as lights that would go on, which would shake up whoever is trying to assault anyone down there,” Moylan said.
The cameras would feed into GPD’s Tumon koban to be monitored by GPD, GVB and possibly anyone with an internet connection.
“And the discussion was on the table about making the feed for most of the cameras available for the public. So people who want to watch the cameras from the comfort of their own homes, they become part of the network of witnesses and make it known throughout the community so that anyone that tries to hit Tumon will know that there’s cameras all over the place and there’ll be less worry to come down here,” Moylan said.
On Friday, representatives from various public and private agencies, including G4S, GPD, the attorney general’s office, mayors and senators, came together to form a task force focused on safety and security.
“We really want to delve into the various aspects of what’s causing some of the angst of certain people that are wanting to come to Guam,” Gutierrez said.
With Guam’s reputation as a safe destination tainted as a result of the shooting death of a Korean tourist during an armed robbery Jan. 4 in Tumon, Gutierrez said that concerns need to be addressed to prevent future market loss.
“Fortunately, Korea did not really get scared away from coming to Guam that week after the incident. Out of 5,000 booked for that week, only 0.01% did not come,” Gutierrez said.
The special task force, which in part is geared toward maintaining Guam’s reputation as a safe destination, shared efforts and ideas to address safety and security in the Tumon area.
To add to the deterrence cameras would provide, it was suggested that signage providing notice of active surveillance be posted at all entrances into Tumon.
Illuminating Tumon is also on the to-do list for deterrence.
“We are putting up solar lights now. We are looking for poles, but they’re not the power poles, they’re the poles that we can put the solar lights on,” Gutierrez said.
GVB is also hiring additional Visitor Safety Officers to patrol Tumon.
“We are going to augment the shortage of our police, the shortage of police officers. We will bring these people in as limited-term employees and have them just for visibility. We will train them. I already picked up one kind of a leader that hopefully starts on the 29th. His name is Ron Santos,” Gutierrez said.
Department of Parks and Recreation park police officers also suggested that laws be amended to give them a secondary jurisdiction.
As it stands, park police officers’ jurisdiction extends to parks and historical landmarks. It was suggested that park police be provided a secondary jurisdiction that covers the Tumon area so they may assist in deterring crime.
The task force is also looking at being able to legally enter private properties for the purpose of cleaning overgrown vegetation that could serve as a place for perpetrators to linger.
Gutierrez spoke of the possibility of charging private landowners a fee for GVB cleaning their land as well as the potential for penalties issued to landowners whose land is being used for criminal purposes.
Flowers and caution tape around a power pole are seen Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, at the site where tourist Hea Jun Hwang was shot and killed Jan. 4, 2024, in Tumon.
