2022-07-22 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes July 22, 2022 Page 2 compared to 93 in May. For June 2022, a total of 4,749 citations were issued: 3,191 for moving/regulatory, 310 for seat belt, 16 for child restraint, and 1,232 were for speeding. Commissioner Quartarao apologized for getting a speeding ticket last month. He stated that he was barely over the speed limit. He accepted the ticket and didn't tell the officer that he's a commissioner. Chair Bertsch stated that he appreciates that and further stated that it's difficult for Police Commissioners to have Police Officers come in front of them for complaints of misconduct when the commission asks for favors from officers. Commissioner Robinson asked why the stats for North Hilo in the traffic report is blank. AC Quiocho explained that the districts of North Hilo and Hamakua are now combined, they no longer keep separate stats for those districts. Chair Bertsch asked if there are any trends, or anything, in particular, contributing to the higher fatality count. AC Basque stated he can't attribute any particular reason why there's an uptick in fatal accidents, a lot of it is due to inattentive driving. When you look at the DUI fatality count, there is an increase there as well. There are possibly more intoxicated drivers on the road. They occur during various times of the day and various days in the week, it's hard to pinpoint an exact reason. Chair Bertsch asked when collecting data, does DPW or the Police Department do any type of heat maps, plotting out the most dangerous areas or certain areas where more fatalities are occurring? AC Basque stated that they complete monthly traffic reviews that are submitted up the chain of command, which would identify specific areas, as far as major and minor traffic collisions, and fatalities. They also look at what their response and plan would be to combat those issues, most of the time it will be more presence and more enforcement in those areas. AC Quiocho added that we are coming out of a pandemic, and a lot of people were under restrictions. Since that has opened up, there's been more traffic on the roadway. He sees more out-of-state license plates on the roadways compared to before, which could be attributed to the real estate market, more people seem to be moving here from the mainland. He further stated that the roadways are horrible, and we have to work in conjunction with the community. They work in tandem with the district commanders on various traffic projects. He feels the department needs to continually get the word out there, using the media to caution people to drive safely. He further explained that calls for service increased. That compiled with manpower, it's difficult to have an officer everywhere all the time. They're trying to get more cooperation from the public, get them apprised of slowing down, be cautious of traffic areas where there's road construction, and don't drink and drive. People have to drive responsibly. The best way to combat this would be through cooperation from the public and to speed up community/media interaction. Commissioner Sur stated that he was in Seattle for four months. He rarely came across bad drivers, it took him five days while there to see a bad driver, and it takes him ten minutes here. He doesn't know if it's a lack of enforcement or just the island mentality. He brought up issues with lifted trucks and stated he knows of instances where people