The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) and ‘Our Telekom’ Company have signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU).
The MoUs will establish a broad non-legal binding framework to allow the RSIPF and Our Telekom to work in close partnership on a range of strategic projects and assist the parties to facilitate the lawful and efficient exchange of information in support of RSIPF investigations
The MoU on Strategic Partnerships and Joint Projects will assist the RSIPF through education, awareness, research, collaboration and operational outcomes, in support of their public service and social responsibility roles. This may include coordination of marketing opportunities, sharing of resources, human resource partnerships or other arrangements or innovations, as proposed by the parties, which support the purpose of this MoU.
An example is the recent gifting of a number of large TV monitors by Our Telekom to the RSIPF. These have been installed in the RSIPF Police Communications Centre and Police Operations Centre and will assist police command, control and coordination during normal policing activities and major events, as they will be able to display operational information, CCTV footage or information such as the location of police resources in Honiara and the Solomon Islands.
Another example is the issues the RSIPF are still experiencing with nuisance calls to the 999 emergency number. In the month of June 2016, the 999 emergency number received 11,048 nuisance calls and 4,216 dead line calls (where callers hung up). The MoU may be used to formalise a project to work with Our Telekom on marketing and technical solutions to combat the extremely high number of non-emergency calls to 999. This is currently impacting on the RSIPF’s ability to respond to real emergency calls where lives of the community may be at risk.
The MoU on Investigations Support has been developed to work in partnership in relation to investigations being conducted by the RSIPF to ensure timely provision of information, security of investigations and positive outcome of legal proceedings conducted in relation to serious crimes committed in Solomon Islands.
The MoUs was formally signed by the RSIPF Commissioner, Frank Prendergast and Our Telekom Chief Executive Officer Loyley Ngira at the Police Head Quarters at Rove on Friday 29th July 2016.
It is expected that the MoUs will support the RSIPF in delivery of policing services to the Solomon Islands and the Commissioner has thanked Our Telekom for their ongoing support.