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Deputy Chief Kubojiri indicated he wanted to respond. Regarding the pay <br />incentive as sending the wrong message and the allegations of sick leave abuse, <br />the Department does actively investigate any allegations of sick leave abuse. <br />However, a County employee can call in sick for up to four days without having <br />to get a doctor slip. This makes it tough for the Department to prove that an <br />officer is not sick. <br />Regarding abuse of the overtime system, many of the officers do not want the <br />overtime. They want a better quality of life. The attrition rate with retirements <br />and moving elsewhere challenges the Department and results in a shortage of <br />personnel to service the community. <br />Regarding officers that are out of shape and working at a desk, these are <br />supervisory officers. Each rank or level has specific responsibilities. The <br />supervisory officers are management. They are the decision - makers for the <br />officers who are out in the field and have questions. They screen and approve <br />reports, along with a whole litany of other work. The Department has already <br />taken officers away from their regular assignments and thrown them back into <br />Patrol. At least 75% of the community policing officers were thrown back into <br />Patrol. The Department also consolidated the DARE program with the School <br />Resource Officer program and put the DARE officers back into Patrol. <br />Mr. Sakaguchi said they need to look at whether they are utilizing their manpower <br />resources in the best way. A lot of people go to the police station for license <br />renewals or other business, and they see a lot of officers standing around. So <br />people wonder why the Department talks about shortages when there are a lot of <br />guys in uniform who don't seem to be doing much. The Department should <br />communicate more about how officers are being taken from the desk to the field. <br />Perhaps they need to relook at the whole situation, to see if having officers <br />reviewing reports and making decisions is having them perform the most essential <br />services. From the community's perspective, the more officers they see, the <br />better they feel protected. It is an image problem. Also, when there is a minor car <br />accident, there are several police cars at the scene. One officer is writing, and the <br />others are talking. The community wonders why several officers are needed at <br />such a scene, if the Department does not have enough officers. It is a problem, <br />image -wise. <br />Deputy Chief Kubojiri said he agrees this is not the solution, but they did look at <br />other ideas as well. If a member of the COGC or the community has suggestions <br />on ways to improve the Police Department, they'll take the suggestions. They <br />received a huge amount of complaints when they took officers out of other <br />positions and put them into Patrol. <br />He said his philosophy is that the Department needs to go back to its core value of <br />protecting the community. Residual things can be held in abeyance until the <br />Department comes up to par. Regarding rethinking what is essential and what is <br />not, they have three assistant chiefs. One handles all the districts on the east side <br />in <br />