Archived remarks from former Police Commissioner Isikia Savua show the Fiji Police Force in 1998 was already responding to a pattern of crime following development — a challenge he highlighted at the opening of the Bucasia Police Post in Labasa. Reported in The Fiji Times on September 5, 1998, Savua said the new Bucasia post was the 60th police post established that year and underlined the importance of placing police ahead of development programs rather than reacting after offences occurred.
Savua told the gathering that the force was struggling to “keep up with the rate of developments” on Viti Levu and was determined to be “there before development programs expand” on Vanua Levu. He warned that one of the biggest problems for police was “chasing shadows,” an inability to anticipate where crime would emerge as roads and infrastructure opened up new areas to movement and commerce.
A central concern, Savua said, was the emergence of what he termed “transient criminals” — offenders who exploited improved road networks to move rapidly between districts committing offences and then leaving. That mobility, he warned, placed extra strain on the police, requiring a different deployment strategy than static, concentrated patrols in established urban centres.
To meet that challenge, Savua defended the aggressive roll-out of police posts across the country, particularly in areas earmarked for development and in rural communities. He argued these posts allowed the force to “stay a step ahead of potential offenders” and dismissed fears that the mere presence of new police stations was driving up recorded crime, saying statistics since the expansion began the previous year did not support that claim.
The opening of Bucasia in Labasa, he said, was part of a deliberate push to extend the police footprint in response to national infrastructure growth. The following day in Suva, a parade at Nasova saw 32 police recruits graduate, a development Savua presented as reinforcing the force’s growing capacity to staff the additional posts and respond to incidents across the islands.
The 1998 statements reflect an enduring theme in Fiji policing: the need to adapt force structure and deployment alongside development of roads and services that change population movements. Savua’s comments at the Bucasia opening show the police at that time prioritised pre-emptive stationing and increased recruitment as tools to manage the new mobility of offenders and the pressures of rapid development.
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