The American Samoa Department of Public Safety has received its first shipment of handguns for police.
The twenty four Glock-17s will be used by selected police officers who will start training with them sometime next year.
Samoa News reports the guns were bought with $10,400 in funding through the Criminal Justice Planning Agency
The Police Commissioner, William Haleck, says the police officers who will use them will be assessed psychologically.
The Commissioner says arming the police has come about partly because of the fatal shooting of police lieutenant Liusila Brown in July 2010 and the attempted murder of another police officer in front of the temporary court house in Fagatogo.
He says there is also a need for court marshals to be armed.
