RSIPF mobility boosted with commissioning of six new vehicles

The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) has commissioned six new vehicles today (7 February 2019) at the Rove Police Headquarters in Honiara to boost the mobility of its frontline officers as it prepares for the National General Election on 3 April 2019.

RSIPF Commissioner Matthew Varley says, “Those vehicles will be allocated to our operational areas to make sure that we can do our jobs. In the past RSIPF has benefited from many vehicles gifted or donated to us by the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) but obviously now that time is behind us. So we have to take on responsibilities for managing our fleet into the future to make sure it is maintained and upgraded.”

Commissioner Varley adds: “The six DMAX Isuzu Hilux vehicles is $1.9 million of investment into our vehicle fleet and there is still a further seven vehicles coming in from another vehicle dealer making it a total of 13 new vehicles for the RSIPF fleet for this year.”

“These new vehicles have been bought under the RSIPF budget for 2018 following savings in other areas of the budget for the purpose of upgrading our vehicle fleet,” says Commissioner Varley.

He explains: “The total cost for the 13 new vehicles is around $4,560,780.00. All these new vehicles are yet to be allocated but they will be certainly used in our frontline operations.”

The new police vehicles will be utilised during the National General Election 2019(NGE) to ensure that RSIPF officers will be deployed at the appropriate locations at the appropriate time to ensure the election process is carried in a safe and secure environment.