2023-01-20 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes January 20, 2023 Page 5 you see it more in West Hawaii because the major in West Hawaii was the captain in Waimea. When she was the captain in Waimea, she told everyone to have their blue lights on during the day. This was during the transition from the bubble lights to the current LED lights. In the past if you left the blue light on with the bubble light, it would melt the outside housing of the light, it wasn't feasible to leave it on all the time. As she moved to West Hawaii, that thought process continued. He leaves it up to the discretion of the officer depending on the type of call they're responding to and what their actual patrol function is for that day. There isn't a policy that mandates that an officer must have their lights on all day while on duty. It goes back to what he's been saying for years, you can't take the discretionary power away from police to be able to effectively provide public safety for people. • Personnel Report: Assistant Chief Burian reported as of January 18, 2023, sworn police vacancies are at 74 in the field, subtract the two recruit classes in progress and they have 58 actual positions that are unfilled. The 97th recruit class started on the 17th and as the chief likes to say, it's a class of ten, himself included, with nine actual recruits. Through January 18th, there are 31 filled police communication officer II positions and 13 vacant. HPD has four supervising police communication officer positions filled and one vacant. A supervisor retired at the end of the year and lately, it seems like things are turning in a positive way in the dispatch center. One of the supervisors was out for a medical reason and just came back today. A dispatcher left for the radio shop a few months ago but has since returned to dispatch. They currently have a class and will be releasing one or two of them to solo call-taking duties on February 1st • Recruitment activities: The 96th recruit class finished their academic training on December 31st, they are now out on FTO. The 97th recruit class has a total of nine in class and will be in academic training until July 15, 2023. There are 38 applicants remaining for the 98th recruit class; 256 applied, 145 took the written test, 71 passed the written, 71 were summoned to the agility, 38 passed, and the total that completed the PHQ by the deadline was 19. They haven't gone through the backgrounds, polygraphs, drug tests, and interviews, so it will most likely be a small class. HPD just put out the next recruitment. They're aiming for three classes this year and are currently looking to improve their recruiting, looking at different avenues to get those numbers up. Police officer III recruitment ran from September 11th through September 22nd, 55 applicants have been referred for departmental screening, which is almost completed. Police lieutenant recruitment ran in September, and the written exam was on September 8th, still pending the outcome, HR is currently reviewing those packets to ensure everyone meets the qualifications. Police major recruitment ran from January 1st to January 10th, pending receipt of that from County HR. Recruitment for Police captain is running from January 22nd to January 31st. The sergeants' list is still active, they had one from last year.