2022-12-12 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Special Meeting Minutes December 12, 2022 Page 13 opportunity to collaborate with that group of similarly situated about to be chief-level officers within their departments around the world, is absolutely a huge benefit. He applauds the commission for choosing folks with that in their background. He was recently able to graduate with a master's degree in law enforcement and public safety leadership from the University of San Diego and again, to the point of technology, he's never stepped foot on campus, everything was done remotely. ➢ Edward Ignacio stated that his fellow candidates pretty much covered everything he would say. Accreditation sets the bar. You always want to strive to have your department be the best. It puts you in that position where you can look at your peers and other places around the country and provide that baseline or "measuring stick" on everything; training, consistency in everything you do, and accountability. All that is covered with CALEA and it makes you a better department. He wants to stress upon best practices. He hasn't worked on CALEA because he was with the FBI for the past 20- something years, but he was part of an inspection team. They would go to all the different divisions, it's a team of guys who will be the next executive leaders in the FBI, they go through everything in their division, and they identify issues that could be fixed. The FBI has a consistent "measuring stick" so we all have to have that level of consistency, so we're all on the same page. The big thing that they do is identify best practices. There are things on this island that he's seen, Area I may do something different from Area II and they may not even know that. You need to have this consistent message across the way. • Vice Chair Brown asked how would you increase the recruitment and retention of our police dispatch operators? ➢ Sherry Bird stated they really need to talk with the dispatchers. It's a different position than being out in the field and out in the community. You're stuck at the desk, at a computer taking calls. The mental strength that they have to have to work in that kind of that position. You get the call, dispatch call, and not knowing the outcome could be worrisome. Talking with the dispatchers, finding out what it is that they enjoy about their positions, what they don't enjoy about their positions, how can we work to improve that, how can we use those dispatchers to be recruiters, not as an assignment, but used to recruit others out in the community. Tell their story, use social media platforms to reach out to groups that might be interested. There might be people interested in the police profession, but doesn't necessarily want to be a police officer. How can we attract that group as well? Retention, much like the police officers, can we put some fresh paint in the office to make it brighter? Can we do things like that to help make them feel more comfortable in the setting that they're in? Making sure they feel valued in their position so they don't want to leave us.