The Solomon Islands Police Force has established a new squad of officers to locate and arrest members of the public that fail to attend court.
The newly formed Warrant Squad is made up of three officers from Central Station, one RAMSI Participating Police Force P-P-F Advisor and is co-ordinated by the Police Prosecutions Unit.Police media statement revealed that there are currently over four-thousand outstanding arrest warrants in Honiara and the list is increasing because between 20 and 30 new warrants are issued each week.
These figures would be higher if outstanding warrants in the Provinces were also counted.
The warrants are issued after people failed to attend court for minor through to very serious offences.
It said some individuals have several outstanding warrants.
Acting Chief Superintendent Mathew Taro from the Police Prosecution Unit said that there was an obvious need for a dedicated squad to tackle the growing list of outstanding warrants and believes this new initiative will be very successful.
Mr. Taro said some of the four-thousand outstanding warrants date back to 1988 and something had to be done.
He said having a group of officers focused solely on locating individuals with outstanding warrants is a move in the right direction for the Solomon Islands Police Force.
The Warrant Squad has tracked down and arrested four people.