2019-04-12 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes April 12, 2019 Page 2 month, 9 reported at HCCC. Areal! had a decrease in robberies and auto thefts, but one business accounted for 9 auto thefts. Mopeds and car rentals are being targeted. This is being addressed through Neighborhood Watches and education. In Ka'u, the majority of burglaries and robberies are in the Ocean View area, although there was a decrease in incidents. This is being addressed with increased patrol and community policing. For the month of March, the department received 9,322 calls for service. • Traffic Report: AC Kanehailua reported that since January, they had 5 fatalities. Fiscal year-to-date, they had 21 traffic fatalities vs. 19 FYTD 2018. Fiscal year-to-date, they had 728 traffic crashes vs. 999 FYTD 2018. For the month of March, 5,527 citations were issued: 4,034 moving/regulatory, 373 seatbelt, 40 child restraint, and 1,080 for speeding. There were no traffic trends. • Personnel Report: AC Thomas reported that on March 27, they had an agility test for new recruits and over a hundred qualified. After testing, they are down to 72 viable candidates. They are trying to get additional civilian positions which they feel are needed, but the County Council is questioning hiring of civilian personnel. They need 5 additional dispatchers, including one more supervisor, and another dispatch console. Dispatchers worked 24-hour shifts, same as officers. They are unable to fully man every shift, and have problems maintaining dispatchers. Exit interview complaints are that there are not enough dispatchers. They think that if they could get more bodies in there, it might help. People are forced to work overtime, a lot of continuous 12 -hour shifts. Sick leave is high. The training process is long and laborious. There is 4-6 weeks of classroom training, another 3 months of answering the phone, and 3-6 months of radio use. Classroom training is done by a seasoned dispatcher. • Finance Report: AC Thomas reported that they are over a million dollars over budget. Their insurance bill is coming up. They want 150 more mobile data units for the vehicles. They are trying to work on computer server upgrades. Their budget hearing before the County Council will be on April 17 at 1:30 in County Council chambers. Regarding the Council's suggestion of having fleet vehicles, this has come up over the years. They recently bought vehicles for $61,000. The Council said they would use the County's mechanic shop for maintenance. There is a big discrepancy in the Council's cost estimates. They need 5 officers for each new position which would cover 24 hours, vacations, sick leave, and days off. The body camera program is in their supplemental budget. For this, they will need two computer persons and a sergeant. Cameras are cheap, and companies make their money on storage. Rollout would be at the end of the fiscal year. • Commendations of Sworn and Civilian Employees: Deputy Chief Bugado reported receiving 4 commendations involving 6 personnel since the last meeting. • Other Department Activities: Deputy Chief Bugado reported that Chief Ferreira was attending FBI leadership training. When they go before the County Council for their