Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — State of Security in the 2024 State of the Territory Comprehensive Report (TCR) in particular notes the shortage of personnel in the Department of Public Safety, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Office of the Public Defender. This is in large part due to better off-island opportunities in terms of salaries and incentives, the TCR states.

For the Department of Public Safety (DPS), it states that the DPS responded to 2,864 calls in FY 2023 comprising 1,136 criminal cases investigated; 871 calls for assistance; 708 traffic accidents investigated, and, 149 drivers arrested for DUl.

“In further breaking down the types of calls served by DPS, the leading types of criminal cases were assault (291), followed by burglary (240) cases, public and private peace disturbance (196), stealing (136), domestic violence (98), and property damage (81).”

The DPS Vice and Narcotics Unit investigated 63 cases involving illegal drugs.

To combat the high turnover of its police officers, the DPS requested a supplemental budget for FY 2024 which was approved by the Fono and Governor as part of a $22 million supplemental bill of unobligated and unexpended revenues from FY 2022.

There were 9 items funded, of which only one addressed DPS needs “not addressed in the FY 2023 Budget” for $886,000. Neither the bill or the TCR report specifically identifies what the funding is to be used for — however, the report does note that the 29th Police Academy is being launched in March 2024.

For the Department of Legal Affairs, which holds “oversight responsibilities and is tasked with enforcing local laws while also regulating entry into the Territory,” it reports that the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) handled more than 600 civil cases in 2023, while the Criminal Division of the AGO, in 2023 handled more than 7,000 criminal and traffic cases. The TCR states that there is “serious shortage of AGO attorneys on island, especially prosecutors.”

To combat the AGO legal staff shortage, it points to hiring a Legal Practitioner, it certified, to handle criminal, traffic and juvenile cases in the AGO, “when offenses charged are class B misdemeanors, class C misdemeanors or infractions.”

It explains that the “AGO has signed an agreement with the Legal Practitioner for her to travel to Hawaii (HI) to prepare for the HI bar exam and AGO will allow her preparations for the HI bar exam as remote work for AGO, and if she passes she will be employed as an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division to assist with the serious shortage of AGO attorneys on island, especially prosecutors.”

The Office of the Public Defender (OPD) is described as responsible for providing legal representation for those unable to afford a private attorney.

The report states that on July 4, 2022, the sole attorney of the OPD resigned; on July 18, 2022, a local attorney was appointed and later confirmed as Public Defender in September of 2022. However, the PD passed away on Sept. 12, 2023. Currently, “attorney Asaua F. Fuimaono stepped up to continue with the marked improvements to the PD's office.”

To address its shortage of attorneys, the OPD has sought to hire independent contractors comprising private sector attorneys and appointing them as Acting Assistant Public Defenders (APD), which lead to “by the end of the 4th Quarter of Fiscal Year 2023, a total of 520 matters before the Office of the Public Defender” were closed out while taking on additional matters within a three-month period.

“Attracting attorneys to move to American Samoa has been a long term impediment primarily due to the lack of competitiveness with other U.S. jurisdictions, particularly with other U.S. territories that were able to offer higher pay and better incentives,” the TCR states.

“In 2022, the Administration created a task force to address the recruitment and retention problems, experienced by ASG,” and “most importantly, in mid – 2023, the Administration approved a salary increase for not just attorneys, but for other professionals as well.”

The TCR reports that an OPD, a 20-year veteran defense attorney, has since been hired as an APD and has been extremely successful in disposing of backlogged cases through dismissals and acquittals.

The OPD is looking at a total of three (3) attorneys by the start of 2024. And continuation of the recruitment and retention program established by the task force remains in force.

It also received an increase in local funding with part of the $22 million supplemental bill of unobligated and unexpended revenues from FY 2022 passed last year for $250,000. There is also an “additional grant funding to allow the hiring of two additional assistant Public Defenders and one (1) qualified investigator.

“This would allow OPD to increase its troop strength by a total of six (6) attorneys and two (2) qualified investigators/interpreters.

“Additional federal funding has been allocated to cover two (2) years of leasehold costs for the OPD's current location at the Fagatogo Square immediately across from the Courts in Fagatogo.”

New computers and software suites have also been purchases and installed with the new funding including purchase of an additional vehicle, in anticipation of increasing investigative and other legal staffers.

Training legal support staff is another approach to handling the OPD caseload. “Currently, all staff, administrative and legal support, are undergoing cross training to enable all staff to cover each position within OPD should a staffer with a designated area of responsibility become unavailable or out of the office.”