2014-07-18 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawai‘i Police Commission Regular Session Minutes July 18, 2014 Page 2 POLICE CHIEF’S REPORT ON DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES Including, but not limited to: Crime report by area, category, and trends: Assistant Chief Tavares reported that up through June 20, they had 8,555 serious crimes. The Area I and II Criminal Investigation Units investigated 2,204 of these cases. In the month of June, they received 7,889 calls for service -- 2,435 for criminal/traffic and 5,454 for miscellaneous public assistance. The crime trend shows an increase in unauthorized entry into motor vehicles, mostly at night, in the Waiakea area. Night time patrol is concentrating in the area. Kona continues to receive complaints about homeless individuals sleeping in parks and public areas and of juveniles drinking in parks. They are addressing these concerns with community police officers, patrol, and other county agencies. Assistant Chief Kealoha reported that private clubs are having parties aimed at younger adults. As a result, they have seen under-aged drinking in parking lots which is difficult to enforce. Ka’u had an increase in burglaries and auto thefts. An ATV was taken from Royal Hawaiian Orchards; a suspect was arrested.They continue to educate the public on crime prevention. Traffic report by area, category, and trends: Assistant Chief Kealoha reported that in June, 3,624 citations were issued – 2,391 moving/regulatory, 271 seatbelt, 28 child restraint, and 934 speeding. There were no island-wide trends, although accidents in Puna are down. Personnel report on vacancies, recruitment, training, promotions, reallocations, severance from service, and work assignments: Assistant Chief Kanehailua reported having 24 sworn vacancies. A recruit class of 16 members will start on August 1. They started with about 100 names but lost many through minimum qualifications, background checks, agility tests, and physicals. A new recruitment will begin next month. They are hoping for higher numbers to work with. Their HR Specialist transferred to County HR. They have 23 funded civilian vacancies. They lost a lot of dispatchers, and the positions need to be filled. Chair Bertsch applauded the police department for doing due diligence in getting the best police officers on the street. AC Kanehailua stated that they cannot control the results of the tests. People do reapply, and they cannot reject anyone from reapplying. For drug and marijuana use, there is a waiting period. Vision requirements can be corrected. Several officers recently chose to return to the mainland.