2006-03-03 Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes

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UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. VOLUNTEER PARKING VIOLATION ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE SGT. D. VERIATO Sergeant D. Veriato reported that there are four disabled parking volunteer officers in Kona and one in Hilo. The volunteers call him at least once a month and they send in their statistics. He has met with the Kona group on several occasions. They have been plagued with some problems and health issues so they have been lacking in their hours. However, he gives them slack because they dont get paid for it, its a tough job, and sometimes they get involved in confrontations. But, the disabled parking volunteers account for about 90 percent of all the disabled citations that the police department issues, especially in West Hawaii. D. Cowdrey questioned why isnt there more citations issued by the law enforcement officers. Sergeant D. Veriato said the police officers do know that the volunteers are out there so they allow them to take care of the task. The police officers do issue citations on occasion. The volunteers are asked to work 20 hours a month. There is one application on his desk for West Hawaii. There is not much interest for East Hawaii, but hopefully more people will come forward because it is a voluntary job. The recruiting effort needs to get going by word of mouth or asking interested people to apply. He can be reached at 961-2305. J. Souza asked how does the police department recruit and advertise. He has never seen any press release in the newspaper. Sergeant D. Veriato said its voluntary so they cannot depend on the Department of Civil Service to put out the recruitment. However, he could prepare a press release and inform the public on what the volunteers have been doing and ask anybody if they are interested in volunteering. T. Spinola-Campbell asked if the police department has a lot of complaints in Hilo that there are infractions where people are parking without the placard. Sergeant D. Veriato said he has not received any complaints in recent months even though they have the mechanism to send letters out to the public when they receive a complaint. D. Cowdrey stated she understood that if police officers do see someone that is parked illegally, then they dont write an infraction or they just ignore the problem. Sergeant D. Veriato responded that the police officers usually look for the placard if the placard is there. If the placard is not there, the police officer will stop and investigate. T. Yamanaka asked if there are any restrictions as to who can volunteer. Sergeant D. Veriato said the police department does the normal background investigation check to make sure the applicant is physically fit and able to do the job. The process also includes a drug test and interview. Once the interview process is done, the person begins training for several days. Patrol Captain Paul Kealoha 2