2012-09-14 Police Commission Minutes

Home

Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes September 14, 2012 Page 5 recovered the device, and it was live. The DOD complimented them for barricading and isolating it. Other departmental activities including those related to administration and operations Chief Kubojiri stated that he received positive comments regarding the community meeting in South Kona. AC Kealoha and his staff prepared for the Tuesday public presentation all on one day, Monday. Chief Kubojiri gave kudos to AC Kealoha and his staff. As a result of Tuesday's meeting, they received more interest in establishing new neighborhood watches. Each neighborhood watch has a watch captain. The email blast goes to the watch captain and they get it out to their watch program. The problem with neighborhood watches is there is a huge interest when there is a spike in crime, but when it settles down, the participants lose interest, and it becomes inactive. Chair Ono stated that common comments at the meeting were that people left messages with the police department but didn't get a call back for days and weeks. Chief Kubojiri stated that they have to improve on communication. He has told people that they cannot wait for the police to respond first. Neighborhood watches were started for people to police themselves. After they put out the photos of the suspects, all but two were arrested. In response to an inquiry about promotions, Chief Kubojiri stated that if an officer has three years of service and a college degree, that person qualifies to take the promotional exam. In response to an inquiry about the status of the aloha training and a replacement for Dr. Kimo Alameda, Chief Kubojiri stated that they brought a company over from Oahu. Unfortunately, the cost was prohibitive. He still has a desire to provide aloha training for every officer and employee. Training is exempt from the bid process. Due to the budget situation, it is tough to find quality training that can relate to the local aspects. Someone from the mainland would have no clue to the local, diverse culture. He will make it happen, but is still trying to figure it out. Commissioner Ignacio told Chief Kubojiri not to have the training if it is not culturally sensitive. Commissioner Horner suggested two alternatives to explore. He does hospitality training based on the Hawaiian values they grew up with. They are universal values. That's one alternative. Another alternative would be training by the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association. They did training for the APEC conference. There would be no charge for the training. He would be happy to work with the Chief on the training, and there would be no charge. Chief Kubojiri expressed interest.