2022-09-16 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes September 16, 2022 Page 3 Acting Police Chief Bugado stated in response to Commissioner Quartararo's concerns, the department has a traffic services coordinator. He advised him to forward his concerns to the Chief's office and they will see how they can rectify those problems. • Personnel Report: Acting Police Chief Bugado reported as of September 15, 2022, sworn vacancies are at 69 in the field. HPD has six officers in the 95t" recruit class and eight in the 96t" recruit class, leaving 55 actual positions unfilled. Police Communication Officers have a total of 44 actual positions. Police communication II positions have 28 filled and 11 vacant. The department has six applicants who will start their training today as police communication officers. There are five total supervisory positions in dispatch and all are filled. As of today, the department has filled 429 out of 484 sworn positions (88.6%). They also filled 128 out of 155 civilian positions (82.6%). • Recruitment activities: The 94t" recruit class is currently in solo assignment, there are 17 officers, who will complete this phase on November 30, 2022. This recruit class started with 32, on June 1, 2021. The 95t" recruit class has six in field training until October 31, 2022, this class started with 28 in December 2021, these officers are currently in their third month of training, are progressing well, and should be getting their district assignments soon. The 96t" recruit class has eight recruits currently in academic training until the end of December 2022, this class started with 11, and this week they'll be completing their mid-term exams and are also progressing well. HPD had a total of 250 applicants for the 97t" recruit class, they currently have 32 applicants who will be going through the background investigation phase. Recruitment is open for police communication officer I positions, it is now continuous recruitment, due to the small pool of applicants. Recruitment for police officer I positions were open from August 21, 2022, to August 30, 2022. The written exam is scheduled for September 27, 2022, and the physical agility is tentatively scheduled for October 26, 2022. Commissioner Sur stated that the Honolulu Fire Department advertises two to three- month courses to assist those interested in joining the fire department. He doesn't know of any police departments in the State of Hawaii that offer this. He noticed a resignation after three and a half hours. He asked if the department would consider similar training to prepare recruits. Acting Chief Bugado stated that this was discussed in the past and is something the department should move forward with. A lot of recruits that resigned did so because they weren't physically prepared, knowing full well what a police officer should be able to do. Commissioner Toci asked if the department ever thought about bringing back the victim's service assistant position. Acting Chief Bugado stated that would be a benefit to the department, this is something they should look at as well. Commissioner Toci stated the position was beneficial to the department and the public, this position helped bridge the gaps. This position could also bring more resources to the public, by directing people to services in the community. She encourages the department to bring this position back.