2022-12-13 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Special Meeting Minutes December 13, 2022 Page 4 but she knows it's the right thing for not only the community but for the police department. He knows she has what it takes to run the police department and he is willing to follow her into battle any day. • John Erickson provided testimony via Zoom and stated as far as the constitution and the Bill of Rights, in the past, there were issues with some unconstitutional acts coming down from the Governor's Office and Department of Health. He asks what's more important, the law of the land or the edicts coming from the Governor's Office. How can you best protect the people if you are not following the law of the land and standing up for our rights? He believes our rights are more important to protect than mandates. He feels we need a police chief that will stand up and use the knowledge that has been banned. There is a dark cloud coming over our country and the world and he doesn't want this police chief to jump on board and just follow the orders. He wants this to be an island of light that will protect our people, our citizens, even if they lose their job. He's looking for a man or woman who will stand up to the corruption, to the watering down of our rights and responsibilities as citizens. He also mentioned the overcrowding of the jails. He stated that he honors God with his life and he hopes the next chief honors his God, Yeshua, whomever it may be, the God of peace and love. He hopes the chief honors God more so than edicts from the Governor. • Justin Gaspar came before the commission. He stated that he's a police officer with the Hawaii Police Department and has been serving this community for the last 13 years. He stated that he's here to speak directly to the candidates about the concerns and requests of the rank and file. A lot of his colleagues told him that if he comes here today and speaks openly, he would be committing career suicide. He is willing to take that risk because this is something he believes in. He stated he and his colleagues would like to see fairness across the board. Anybody who has worked for this department knows that it's completely two separate worlds between the east side and the west side. It's several different worlds when you go to each district. Each watch is run a different way, people are doing things differently, there are no standardized operations. Another thing that the rank and file would like the candidates and the police commission to know is the monkey in the room, retention. Why are we not retaining our officers? He served as a weaponless defense instructor for the department and it's disheartening. They put in the time, and work, they train well-qualified applicants and they leave. Officer Gaspar stated that he has looked at pursuing other career opportunities across the nation, not necessarily for the money or the glitz and glamour of it, because he loves this job. He stated we are losing qualified applicants because of the mismanagement that has been happening for decades at the top. He further stated there's no recall training given to them. The second thing is the schedule. He has been an officer for 13 years and for 13 years he has heard every reason as to why they can't get a schedule change. When there are big incidents such as the volcanic eruption in 2018, the TMT protests, Ironman, and the new volcanic eruption, the schedule changes at will. They're taught that everything is about family, but the schedule shows otherwise. It's constantly manipulated and never to the benefit of the officers. The next