The Associated Press
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) - Hawaii County police are used to covering a lot of ground on the Big Island, but staffing shortages are making the job more difficult.
Although recruiting and keeping top candidates has been difficult for a number of years, emergency calls are now being prioritized and the shortages are in danger of impacting morale.
“We are stretched pretty thin,” said Pete Hendricks, Hawaii County Deputy Managing Director and former member of the county Police Commission. “There are vacancies.”
According to the county Police Department’s annual report for 2002-2003, the department had a budget of $32.7 million and 452 full-time positions, including 400 sworn personnel. Because turnover and transfer rates are so high and are in a constant state of fluctuation, exact numbers of vacancies were not available last week.
Capt. Robert Hickcox of the West Hawaii Division said his officers are coping well, despite missing meal breaks during their shifts and even sleeping in the South Kona substation to avoid long commutes on the island’s congested roads.
“I do feel for the officers. The day shift is just going from call to call to call,” Hickcox said. “The dispatcher is prioritizing the calls, but they still are getting stacked up. It’s really becoming an everyday thing.”
He said the Kona Patrol Division is short a sergeant, who serves as a field supervisor, and a lieutenant, or watch commander.
Vacancies at the patrol level on all shifts also mean many officers come in up to four hours early and often stay late.
“It gets to the officers, gets to their morale,” Hickcox said.
In some cases, community policing officers are being pulled back to patrol duty and in the Ka`u district, two officers each shift patrol an area larger than the island of Oahu with no backup and no supervisor in the substation.
Overtime hours are skyrocketing, Hickcox said, but the vacancies mean money is available from those unpaid salaries.
Some of the vacancies are the result of retirements, and as high-ranking veterans of the department retire and others are promoted, it creates a domino effect from the top administration level down to the patrol units.
The West Hawaii District also must deal with a high rate of transfers, because many officers cannot afford to live in and around Kailua-Kona. One officer is making the two-hour drive every day from Hilo where his family lives, Hickcox said.
The Captain Cook substation is dubbed “the barracks,” he said, because officers have moved cots into a back room and are sleeping there to avoid frequent commutes.
Help is on the way in the form of a new full station in South Kona.
“There is no question we need a new station in South Kona and we will get one,” County Councilwoman Virginia Isbell said.
At last week’s meeting, the council deferred a final vote on $3.68 million for the planning, design and construction of the station. Isbell, who represents the Kona districts, said the only reason for the deferral was to ensure enough money is earmarked for the project.
The council intends to vote next month after hearing from police and planning representatives and finalizing a site for the station, which will include detention cells.
Currently, the only detention cells are at the Kealakehe Police Station, just north of Kona. That means suspects must be transported by officers some 20 miles south to the courthouse in Kealakekua.
“I know they are anxious to get it going,” Isbell said. “Anything we can do to lessen the time police take for transportation will help free them up for other duties.”
A full station also is needed, and planned, in the Puna district.
“That’s our highest priority - stations in Puna and South Kona,” Hendricks said. “Everyone assumes the police can show up in an instant, but we have to recruit enough people and have the right physical facilities and do the things to keep officers in the profession. Recruiting has always been a challenge. We have to work much harder to bring in good people.”
One way to recruit the best candidates is to offer an academic degree in conjunction with police department training.
For example, Hendricks said, a partnership with the community college may allow trainees to earn an associate of arts degree in police science.
Hendricks and Hickcox said they do see some positives - Neighborhood Watch programs, additional funding from homeland security programs, grants to operate seat belt checks and sobriety checkpoints and a general public that typically is respectful and cooperative.