2004-07-16 Police Commission Minutes

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Hawaii County Police Commission Special Meeting Minutes July 16, 2004 Page 6 • Crime: Major Day summarized the written report. He reported on difficulties in staffing the SANE Program, Sexual Assault Nursing Examiners, due to lack of funding, although they are working on a couple of grants. • Traffic: Major Day summarized the written report. • Finance: No discussion on the written report. • Personnel: Deputy Chief Kubojiri reported that seven officers in National Guard will be activated. Captain Ferreira reported having 57 sworn vacancies. They actually have 40 vacant position numbers in the department because the 17 officers in recruit training were not factored in. Captain Ferreira stated that they do participate in job fairs and school functions and career day. They constantly provide the Chief's office with vacancy and staffing projections. The Department of Civil Service handles recruitment announcements, written examinations, and the physical agility tests. He explained the recruitment process. Deficiency has been in the applicants' ability to pass the written exam. In the last recruitment, they started with 60 candidates and ended up with 15. They would like to see more in the area of 25. The Chief's office makes a determination on filling vacant positions. It was decided that they would fill the patrol positions first before the senior rank, because patrol has been short handed for a very long time. Some CPO positions have also not been filled because of the need to staff patrol first. • Commendations: Deputy Chief Kubojiri reported receiving 6 commendations since the last meeting. Other Departmental Activities: Deputy Chef Kubojiri further reported on the staffing situation. They have lost officers to TSA who has been recruiting seasoned officers. They are looking into the school cadet program. His understanding is that SHOPO is looking into lowering their pay scale to cover those areas that they could use for cadets. They would still have to go through the recruitment process. They have had recruitment announcements in statewide publications and their website. They also participate in job fairs. Regarding officers working three days a week for twelve hour shifts, that is done in Honolulu. The officers love it and many are able to work a second job. However, as far as service to the community, they have had a lot of complaints from citizens who are waiting longer for follow -ups. Robert Hickcox was promoted to captain of Kona Patrol and Captain John Dawrs was transferred to CID in Kona. The officers for the ice task force have been selected. The