2022-12-12 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Special Meeting Minutes December 12, 2022 Page 11 things right off the bat are recruitment and retention, the fentanyl crisis, and negative public perception. In regards to recruitment and retention, he would regularly schedule a recruit class on the west side. There are applicants on that side who may have trouble spending the whole week in Hilo and driving back out on the weekends. In regards to the shortage of dispatchers, he would get them the first responder designation. They're the first ones that are called, they help deliver babies on the phone, they give instructions for CPR over the phone, and they are in respect first responders. With that designation, there would be a salary increase and recognition that would help in recruitment and retention. He would have dispatchers attend career fairs to help recruit because they can best describe what they do. For officer retention, when you have officers that are eligible to retire, we want to keep them as long as possible, so he would look into a $500 a month retention bonus for at least six months while they have succession planning with that position. Regarding negative public perception, they need to have instant dissemination of pertinent information to the public using the existing software that the department uses but have it manned 24 hours a day. ➢ Sherry Bird thanked Chief Ferreira for his leadership and stated changes that the department could make would include recruitment and retention, patrol operations are hurting. They are about 70 sworn officers short, which creates a big impact on patrol operations. A lot of the patrol districts are already working 12-hour shifts, which is an everyday occurrence. Much like Mr. Applegate had said, as far as retention goes, speaking to those who are reaching that retirement time period and seeing what their plans are and get a gauge on how long they plan on staying and see if they can entice them to stay a little longer and explore the idea of retention bonuses with the county if that's possible. As far as recruitment, she would like to rebrand the police department. If you look at the applicant pool or those who are interested in becoming potential police officers, what is it that they want on a personal level? She helped raise three of her nieces who are now adults. Two of them are going to college, in the medical field. It was either law enforcement or the medical field. She asked them why they want to pursue this angle and both of them said they want to be of service, to be able to help people. She thinks this speaks to the generation of people that the department could attract, those who want to be of service to people. So why don't we promote what we do already as police officers? We do it, we are of service to people, and we help people, so why don't we showcase that in our recruitment strategies? The other thing is modernizing the police department. If the pandemic taught us anything, it's technology. How can we use technology, modernize our police department, and use it to our advantage? Social media, we're on social media. Pushing those messages out, technology, wellness apps for our officers, everyone has a phone, let's get something that we can put on the phone for the officers to help in their time of need.