Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero issued 18 percent across-the-board pay raises to officers in checks Friday. She and Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio addressed public safety officers throughout the government of Guam Friday evening.
The governor and lieutenant governor’s full statement follows:
Thank you and Håfa Adai! Each day, Guam’s law enforcement officers put on their uniforms, pin on a badge, and go to work. Without knowing what the day will bring, they head to their stations and to the streets, hoping to come home safely.
They are dads, moms, sons, daughters, grandparents and friends of our community. They are not only strong arms of the law, but also the beating hearts of justice. With courage and commitment, they serve on the front lines of our community, responding to a wide range of risks and shielding us from untold crimes.
Our island asks a great deal of our protectors, and we know it is our sacred responsibility to ensure that those who secure us have the resources they need to carry out their service on our behalf.
Three years ago, our administration made it our sworn mission to make Guam safer. Since then, we have worked tirelessly to improve our island’s state of public safety. This meant confronting perennial challenges at their core. It meant confronting fear with faith. Faith in the works of those confronting threats to our lives and the lives of our loved ones. Faith in law enforcement. Faith in their ability and ambition.
Our administration has hired 70 new police officers and will be hiring dozens more to secure the sanctuary of Guam’s families. We invested in more than 30 new patrol cars and a new police boat to expand on our efforts to prevent crime, prioritize safety, and save lives. We invested in a DNA lab to bring the capabilities of police investigators into the 21st century, and to build stronger cases that will prosecute criminals, keep them away from our community, and shine the light of justice on cases gone cold and cases in need of our diligence.
When COVID-19 caused an uptick in emergency calls, we bolstered our response efforts by procuring nine new ambulances for the Guam Fire Department. We are in the process of replacing our outdated emergency 911 system with a state-of-the-art system to improve the efficiency of emergency responders. We are breaking ground on a new fire station in Sinajana to enhance our emergency capabilities and cut down on response times. Later this year, we also will have more than 30 new firefighters finish their training and reinforce our response.
When convicted criminals escaped from prison and committed more crimes on our island, we worked quickly to expedite the hiring of dozens of corrections officers to ensure no one else got out and that no contraband got in. We approved DOC’s master plan to establish a new facility that will meet the demands of securing nearby homes and address the prison population with proper rehabilitation resources for the next century and beyond.
When families told us stories of drug abuse and its destruction in their homes and the lives of their loved ones, we worked with border officials at Customs and the Port to improve our rate of detecting and seizing drugs before they could devastate our island further. We expanded drug interdiction efforts to include postal mail inspection and we created a maritime drug prevention team to inspect containers at the Port on a daily basis. We are bringing in more drug detection canines to combat drug trafficking and we are establishing a new inspection facility at the Port to armor every avenue in our island with quality control.
We have sat down and talked directly with our law enforcement officers and public safety leaders to improve our response to all of these issues. But we also needed to address the sobering fact that many of our officers, even new hires, were leaving us.
Faced with the fundamental challenge of retention, we knew we had to work even harder. We needed to do more to keep our officers, so they wouldn’t leave for higher-paying jobs in the federal government or elsewhere. We needed action that spoke louder than words, action that would give wind to our support.
We worked closely with the Department of Administration to conduct a review of law enforcement compensation and put forth a package truly reflective of our officers’ value and valor.
In our review, we found that the average salary of a Guam police officer was far less than the national average. We found that their pay structure was non-competitive and did not accurately reflect the scope of their many, often multiplying, duties.
So, when the Department of Administration presented their recommendations to Lieutenant Governor Tenorio and I, we knew then it was our responsibility to raise the bar of our island’s public safety by raising law enforcement morale.
Exactly one month ago, I signed an executive order establishing a law enforcement pay scale within the Competitive Wage Act pay plan. We implemented an 18% pay increase and for the first time in more than eight years – today, our law enforcement officers are seeing the reflection of their valued service and sacrifice in their paychecks. At this time, we recognize our officers and their families with applause. (pause for applause)
Now, think about what we ask of our law enforcement officers. We ask them to be everything from counselors and rescuers, to the people who have to take down the bad guy, address crime firsthand and head-on, and just about everything in between.
You know, when our police officers, firefighters, customs agents, corrections officers and other crime fighters respond to their radio alerts, they are running toward danger while others are running away. They know there’s a risk of them getting injured or worse, and yet they do so with a powerful purpose.
These are the kinds of characteristics that make up a hero. You all are real life heroes to our island and to me. And I have faith that future generations will join your ranks, recognizing the same inherent value I see in each of you today and every day.
When promising recruits take an interest in your line of work, perhaps at the GPD Job Fair next Saturday, February 26 – I hope they stand ready to fill the shoes of giants. I hope they fulfill the sacred obligation of serving and protecting our island. I hope they feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, as you all should.
As we pour our resources into our review of the Educator Pay Plan, we are working with laser focus to provide our teachers the increased compensation they deserve and will receive.
For today and each day, my heartfelt thoughts and my sincere gratitude are with all our law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line, so the people of Guam can live theirs knowing there is always someone to call, someone to respond, and someone to save the light of day when it is turning dark.
Thank you for being that someone. Thank you for keeping us safe and our island secure. On behalf of our administration, we thank you and your families for your extraordinary service and sacrifice. We thank you for being our light in the dark.
Biba Law Enforcement! Biba Public Safety! Biba Guam!
