The Solomon Islands Police Commissioner, Jahir Khan, stated in a press conference last week that he will be looking into improving the condition of work of the police force.
Mr Khan said upon arrival that he learnt, with great dismay, the huge disparity of the police pay compared to other government paid workers in the country."Fifteen thousand dollars to a police constable per annum is peanuts. I think our police officers got to be paid much higher than that. When you divide that into the weekly wages, 15-thousand dollars minus the tax, can you imagine how much they take home," Khan said. "This is below the poverty line, and I would like to see our police force looked after well, taken care of. So I will be fighting very hard in so far as upgrading the status quo in as far as salary is concerned."
Another area of concern to the Police Commissioner is housing. Mr Khan said that police officers are living in pathetic conditions, very old houses not renovated and neglected for a long time.
But he said the Prime Minister has advised him that the government will build about 600 houses for the police force. Mr Khan said he hopes to also pursue the opportunity of acquiring some land for the police housing scheme.