2014-09-19 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes September 19, 2014 Page 2 committing a large number of burglaries. When these individuals are in jail, the numbers drop. In Kona, they had complaints of juveniles drinking in public and people camping in public parks. They are addressing this with CPOs, bike patrols, the Crime Reduction Unit, working with public, attending CHIRP and community meetings. Ka'u auto thefts continue, and it is being addressed with police presence. Assistant Chief Kealoha reported that they were served with an ACLU complaint that the county's ordinance on aggressive panhandling is a violation of civil rights. Enforcement of the ordinances is on hold. Homelessness is not a crime, but urinating in public and public drunkenness is. The prosecutor is looking into updating the laws. Commissioner Gomes expressed concern about homelessness in Ka'u. AC Kealoha stated that Ka'u has people occupying residences that they do not own, Traffic report by area, category, and trends. Assistant Chief Kealoha reported that traffic crashes are up. They had one traffic fatality. For the month of August, 4,360 citations were issued: 3,002 moving/regulatory, 345 seat belt, 34 child restraint, and 979 speeding. There were no traffic trends in any of the districts. They continue to use their stealth unit to monitor traffic. It helps to validate complaints. Chair Bertsch extended his thanks to all commanders for a job well done. Personnel report on vacancies, recruitment, training, promotions, reallocations, severance from service, and work assignments. Assistant Chief Kanehailua reported having 28 sworn vacancies; 14 are in recruit class. They are aggressively trying to meet the deadline for the next recruit class. They plan to overlap with the current class. They are in the process of doing the sergeant's exam. The reading list was given out and officers have a month to prepare. They will also be doing promotions for lieutenants. They have 29 civilian vacancies. They have vacancies for Accountant IV, HR Specialist, IT, and Dispatchers. Filling vacancies without an HR Specialist is a problem. • Finance report of budget and expenditures: Assistant Chief Kanehailua reported that their CID costs are high due to overtime for Tropical Storm Iselle. • Commendations of sworn and civilian employees. Assistant Chief Kanehailua reported receiving 6 commendations involving 34 personnel. Other departmental activities: AC Kanehailua reported that they will be staffing the Emergency Operations Center in Pahoa. AC Tavares briefed the commission on the lava flow. They are confident they will provide the same or increased level of safety for the Puna community. For now, the Pahoa police station is safe. They plan to move to the Kea`au station and old courthouse if it is needed. They are looking into working 12 -hour schedules and moving the blue and whites in from other district a couple of days before the lava crosses. Once Highway 130 is covered, they will focus