Biographical Sketch

Michael R. Sala, a career senior executive and deputy Commissioner for the American Samoa Government Department Public Safe was named Director of the Office of Territorial and International Criminal Intelligence and Drug Enforcement (OTICIDE), when OTICIDE was completely separated from the Department of Public Safety on July 15, 1998.

Executive Director Sala has 40 years of law enforcement and public safety experience in American Samoa and the continental United States; 20 of those years he served as deputy Commissioner for the Department of Public Safety (police, fire, corrections and motor vehicles). His variety of assignments included: patrol, traffic, training, crime prevention, vice and narcotics, intelligence, investigations, administration and senior management consultant. Sala served fifteen years as Executive Director of the South Pacific Criminal Intelligence Network (SPICIN), the intelligence arm of the South Pacific Chiefs of Police Conference (SPCPC) organisation comprising 21 countries in the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand until 2003 when SPICIN was reorganized as part of the regions' information sharing and intelligence infrastructure administered solely by the American Samoa Government.

OTICIDE is a multi-agency law enforcement program covering local and Hawaii based US federal law enforcement agencies. SPICIN is the intelligence arm of the South Pacific Chiefs of Police Conference comprising 21 countries and 11 member states in the Pacific. The INTERPOL Pacific Sub-Bureau of the United States National Central Bureau (USNCB) is under the Department of Justice. Sala has served as Executive Director of SPICIN since 1987 and INTERPOL Pacific Sub-Bureau since 1988 when both of these police programs were established.

On February 6, 2007, Governor Togiola appointed Mr. Sala as Acting Director for the newly established Department of Homeland Security (DHS) comprising of the following agencies: Office of Vital Statistics (OVS), Territorial Emergency Management Coordination Office (TEMCO), Territorial Office of Homeland Security (TOHS), and Office of Territorial and International Criminal Intelligence and Drug Enforcement (OTICIDE).

Sala's education and training include a Bachelors and Masters Degrees in law enforcement and criminal justice and had pursued post graduate studies toward a master degree in public administration and a doctorate degree in criminology. He is a graduate of the Honolulu Police, California Highway Patrol and Oregon Multnomah County Sheriff's Academies, and has received numerous leadership and management trainings throughout his career. He taught criminal justice subjects for the Criminal Justice Program at the American Samoa Community College.

He has presentered lectures to various law enforcement agencies regionally and nationally, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS).

Sala is a member of several police organizations including the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) of which he is a life member, and International Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association (INEOA). He is the past Chairman of the South Pacific Chiefs of Police Conference (SPCPC), 1994-1995. He was Chairman of the American Samoa Government Interagency Special Task Force on Narcotics and White Collar Crime of law enforcement inter-agencies for nine years, and also directed a Bureau of Special Investigation. He is the Vice Chairman for the 11-members Governor's Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse since 1997. He is Chairman of the Preparedness Task Force on Terrorism in American Samoa.

Mike was one of the 25 people to watch as regional leaders making a difference in the Pacific region named in the issue of Pacific Magazine of May/June 2007.

Mike holds a High Chief title of "Tualamasala" since 1972 at his village of Faga'itua under paramount chief Le'iato family. He resides in the village of Avaio known as Two-Dollar Beach. He is known locally as either Tuala or Sala. He is an active life member (charter president) of the Lions Club of Pago Pago since it was chartered in October 1982 and the Boy Scouts of America, American Samoa District Committee under the Aloha Council, Honolulu, Hawaii, in which he has served as chairman for the last 17 years. He was awarded the 2001 Silver Beaver Award, the highest recognition presented to an individual for noteworthy service of exceptional character to youth.