2019-01-18 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes January 18, 2019 Page 3 They have 5 dispatch vacancies, which is a concern. Another test will be given at the end of the month. School crossing guard positions are difficult to fill because they only work one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon. Finance Report: They met with County Finance on January 4. Their Budget of $69,309,017 came back unchanged. They are constantly told by the County that it has to be a status quo budget. They went ahead and submitted a supplemental budget for first line supervisors. They want 24-hour supervision, especially in the smaller districts. They are trying to increase dispatching personnel. The Puna dispatcher also handles Ka'u. Puna has a lot of violence. HOVE is cheaper to live, so a lot of people are moving there, and so Ka'u has been getting a lot of calls for service. They want another radio console to handle Ka'u. To add another one, they will need to hire 5 more dispatchers. This accounts for the 24/7 schedule. The new dispatch center will have room for more dispatchers. Commendations of Sworn and Civilian Employees: Chief Ferreira reported that since the last meeting, they received 4 commendations involving 27 personnel. Other Department Activities: Chief Ferreira reported that the trend has been to not put people in jail, but to release them because of funding. They are looking at what can be done with pretrial detainees because of funding. They are looking at what can be done with overcrowding. They are always looking at the laws. He discussed the budget with the Mayor, and was told to put in what they need. They submitted supplemental budgets for equipment and personnel. It's a tight budget, and he doesn't know if they will get anything. Their primary focus is on their supervisory personnel which is lacking. When they first went for accreditation, they were told supervision was lacking. Their reaccreditation is coming up, and they need to show that they are doing what they report. So far they are on track. Chair De Luz asked about the status of the Law Enforcement Standards Board. Chief Ferreira stated that this passed at the last legislature. They are looking at standardized training for all law enforcement, not just police. Even tax investigators have to go through the same training. All four police counties are CALEA accredited and have the same standards and training that they need. All police in Hawaii didn't support the bill. They told them to create a task force and look into it first. It passed, but now they can't do it. They need to separate the entities, fund, and staff the board. The legislature was asked to go back and make amendments. He will send a copy of the bill and the changes to the commission. Chief told the commissioners to let him know if they wanted to visit the recruit class.