The Fiji Police force has admitted it has not properly dealt with some recent issues raised by the public about lack of service.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Rusiate Tudravu says the force has the manpower and the capability to fight crime, but they cannot quickly be present everywhere.

He says they’re calling on Fijians to assist when officers are not present during unexpected situations.

“I admit there are some issues coming up that we’ve not properly dealt with in our initial actions but we are trying our best to get that fear out from the members of the community – that we are not doing anything. We are doing as much as we can but there are some cases that we are just not there for.”

FBC news spoke to a family in Nubu Village, Labasa, who are living in fear following a robbery last week.

Ram Prasad says his wife was assaulted during the incident.

“I called the police in Wainikoro. Nobody answered. I called police from Labasa so they turned up and about few minutes later then I try again to Wainikoro station then they answer and told me no vehicle was there so very poor service.”

Tudravu says such cases need the assistance of the whole community.

“Police cannot be everywhere at all times – so we fallback to the community at large to assist us in regard to that. Whilst we are trying our best- some of the things are happening within members of the community which we don’t know.”

Tudravu’s comments came after multiple reports of robberies and assault cases from around the country.