2022-06-17 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes June 17, 2022 Page 2 Traffic Report: Assistant Chief Basque reported that as of June 9, 2022 traffic crashes are at 748, compared to 705 last year. Traffic fatalities are at 30 compared to 16 last year, which is an 88% increase. There were three more fatalities last week, so the totals are much higher. There were 944 DUI arrests compared to 1,085 the year prior. DUI arrests for May are 93, compared to 79 in April. For May 2022, a total of 5,073 citations were issued: 3,547 for moving/regulatory, 374 for seat belt, 25 for child restraint, and 1,127 for speeding. Chair Bertsch inquired about the recent fatalities. AC Basque stated that one on each side of the island both involved motorcycles. One was due to the negligence of the motor vehicle's operator doing a U-turn in the middle of the roadway, causing the motorcycle to sideswipe or T-bone the car. Another fatality involved a pedestrian, this occurred in Kailua-Kona, at 5:30 p.m., at the Palani Road intersection, which has heavy traffic at that time. The pedestrian was not in the crosswalk or marked area, about 200 feet north of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Palani Road intersection, crossing three lanes with a lot of traffic. Chair Bertsch asked if TEU is fully staffed. AC Basque stated that Area I and Area II are fully staffed with both having one sergeant and four officers. They also just completed training on traffic reconstruction and other types of fatal investigation training on the mainland. Personnel Report: Assistant Chief Burian reported that through June 15, 2022, sworn police vacancies are at 64 in the field and 55 actual positions. There are currently nine recruits in classroom training. Dispatch currently has a class of one person and 16 vacancies. They just completed the realistic job preview on June 9, 2022, and received 9 applications. Their goal is to have four dispatch classes per year. There is an open recruitment for dispatchers and they hope to have two or three classes completed by the end of the year. There's a total of 428 sworn positions filled, out of 483 and 122 civilian positions filled out of 155 At the last meeting, the commission inquired about the average age of recruits that graduate. AC Burian reported that at the start of class, the average age is 30.78 years of age and the average age of remaining recruits is 30.05 years. He reported that the 95th recruit class is scheduled to start field training on July 1, 2022. The average age at the start of this recruit class was 28.68 years and the average age of remaining recruits in this class is 28.22 years. There were 284 applicants for the 96th recruit class, after the process, they will have a class of 11, starting on July 1, 2022. Recruitment for the 97th recruit class: physical agility was on May 25, 2022, 76 passed the written exam, 65 showed up to the physical agility, 53 passed, and they are currently in the process of conducting background checks. Commissioner Lassiter asked what the physical agility test consists of. AC Burian stated they have 70 seconds to complete a course that consists of dragging a 100-plus