SUVA, May 28 (Xinhua) -- The Fijian police are now using body cameras and drones to track people farming and selling drugs like marijuana on the island nation.
Fiji's Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho said Thursday that serious crimes and crimes against women and children have decreased in the past few months, however, the fight against drug continues and the Fijian police are stepping up on its raids.
He said that the police officers are now utilizing body cameras during raids as a lot of accusations were being made against officers in the past ordering on brutality.
"Because we have seen over time that the first thing that people who are raided do is to go and lodge a report or run to the media that we were heavy-handed in the way we raided their properties. So we have got body cams now and we have employed drones."
Qiliho said earlier that the shattering impact of drug consumption in Fiji is his biggest worry as the smuggling of hard drugs continues to evolve every day in the island nation.
Fiji's Deputy Secretary for Defence and National Security Ilai Moceica said at a Narcotics Workshop in Fiji's capital Suva last year that 100 patients were admitted at a local psychiatric hospital from May 2017 to April 2018 due to substance abuse alone.
The most commonly abused substances in Fiji are marijuana, methamphetamine, cigarettes, kava and alcohol, Moceica said.
He urged stakeholders to holistically view this as a national problem and come up with strategic solutions that will not only allow enforcement agencies to curb the illicit use of drugs and eradicating cultivators but also commit Fiji's resources and time to this worthy cause.
Last year, the Fijian police seized drugs worth over 94 million U.S. dollars in the island nation. Enditem
