2019-08-23 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes August 23, 2019 Page 3 positions. Regarding overtime, County Finance now has to approve overtime. Vice Chair Bertsch stated that he's afraid they have taken authority away from the Chief. AC Thomas reported that they are having less police recruit applicants, and it's the same state-wide. They are all vying for the same positions. Vice Chair Bertsch stated that regarding the recent island -wide active shooter situation, there was a lot of feedback and information going out from the public. Even a former police officer talked about it on the news. He asked what could be done about that. Chief Ferreira stated that with situations like that, they do an after incident review. Things are happening fast, social media is getting information out, and people are doing it instantaneously. Vice Chair Bertsch stated that some departments do social media monitoring. Chief stated that they do that for investigative purposes. They don't have the resource for someone to do 24-hour monitoring. He wished they did. Vice Chair Bertsch stated that the police department could initiate a task force to look into this. Social media is happening so fast versus no information getting out from the police department. If they are not progressive, they could get into trouble. Chief Ferreira stated that they use Nixle to push out information as fast as they can. Vice Chair Bertsch asked what their mission is now on the Daniel K. Highway, how long they will be there, and what their exit strategy is. He is concerned about the perception of the police department by the community. Chief stated that right now, they are part of a joint operation. They are at a status quo. They are now running 8 -hour shifts. Initially, they were running 12 -hour shifts. They do have a contingency to react immediately if they need to. The community has asked for more presence on the road. The exit strategy has to be made by the State. Right now, it's in the negotiation phase. Vice Chair Bertsch asked if they were enforcing the law or not enforcing the law. If they are getting direction from the Attorney General, they should tell the public that. They are not being put in a positive position. Chief Ferreira stated that it's a joint effort, not solely Hawaii County Police. Commissioner Paiva stated that he appreciates the officers being out there. He goes up there every day. He is very happy that they are now doing enforcement.