HPD vacancy task force under Council scrutiny

Yahoo

02-06-2025

The Honolulu City Council is set to vote Wednesday on a proposed task force to reduce the Honolulu Police Department's dire staffing shortage of 456 uniformed officer vacancies—which despite mitigation efforts has grown 32 % in some four years.
Council member Andria Tupola, who introduced Resolution 160 to form a task force, says HPD's staffing shortage is an ongoing crisis that puts the public at risk.
'We can't be burning days. This is a big issue, ' said Tupola during the Council's Public Safety Committee meeting Thursday. 'By the end of this year, we don't want to hit 500 ' police officer vacancies.
The Council's Public Safety Committee has recommended that the City Council adopt Resolution 160 to fill vacancies and promote officer retention at HPD.
Tupola's resolution states HPD 'is currently experiencing a severe staffing shortage, with 456 uniformed officer vacancies as of February 2025, compared to 345 vacancies in February 2021, despite ongoing efforts to reduce the shortage.'
'This staffing shortage has resulted in inadequate police coverage across Oahu, increased emergency response times, unmanageable caseloads for police detectives, and increased safety risks for both officers and the public, ' the legislation says.
Resolution 160 highlights that in 2024, HPD conducted an internal 'Commander Performance Survey ' in which survey responses noted 'high vacancy rates, increased workloads, insufficient resources, and overall safety risks.'
Tupola's resolution alleges that HPD's inability to resolve its officer vacancies rests with its leadership, in this case Police Chief Arthur 'Joe ' Logan.
'The City Council finds it necessary to hold the Chief of Police accountable for the failure to adequately address vacancies in a timely and effective manner, which has directly contributed to the current crisis, and to take swift action to resolve this issue, ' Resolution 160 states. 'Council believes it is critical to establish a task force to develop actionable strategies for reducing vacancies, improving retention, and ensuring that the HPD can effectively serve and protect Oahu communities.'
Logan did not immediately respond to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser's request for comment.
Tupola's resolution also noted that part of HPD's challenge is that the department is not using all of its annual appropriations. In fiscal year 2024, HPD's patrol division let approximately $15 million in funding lapse—the largest lapsed amount of any city department, according to the Status of the City's Finances 2025 report issued by the Office of Council Services.
The report also noted that HPD let $50 million of its overall fiscal year 2024 appropriation lapse. To put that into perspective, in March, HPD submitted a fiscal year 2026 operating budget request of nearly $400 million to fight crime.
Resolution 160 also requests that the task force 'remain in effect to monitor progress on its recommendations and may be dissolved by the Council once (HPD ) demonstrates sustained improvement in recruitment, retention, and staff levels.'
Tupola announced at Thursday's meeting that she had taken part in a recent meeting to discuss the task force proposal with Logan, Council Public Safety Committee Chair Val Okimoto and Police Commission Chair Kenneth Silva.
She said the group 'all agreed that a written plan about addressing the vacancies, and not just recruitment (but ) also retention ' was needed and that budget-line items needed to delineate how to 'fund each of the things that we think will help the department move forward.'
Tupola thanked city Managing Director Mike Formby for his assistance.
'He's been participating in a lot of these discussions, so he's included as well in the list of nine people ' on the task force, she added.
Tupola noted that the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers and the Hawaii Government Employees Association could 'also play a role ' in advising Logan on how to retain positions or recruit to fill vacancies.
The task force, Tupola said, also should have a representative from an outside police department.
HPD Maj. Parker Bode, assigned to the department's Human Resources Division, told the committee that he favored Resolution 160.
'We support the intent of the task force, ' he said.
Eddie Fujioka, a retired city Emergency Medical Services district chief, was among others who testified in support of forming a task force. Fujioka said he was pleased that a focus of Tupola's resolution is shoring up police dispatchers.
'I've noticed that the Police Department has always been short of dispatchers, ' he said. 'They're the primary answering point for the County of Honolulu, which means every 911 call must go to the Police Department, and it's routed to either EMS or Ocean Safety.'
He added that HPD's dispatchers 'are the only dispatchers who are nonuniformed personnel, which means they make the lowest wages of any dispatcher in the county, yet they do the most amount of work, answer the most amount of calls.'
'And I've seen times when they're on skeleton crew and when a dispatcher who's on the radio has to go on a break, another dispatcher has to manage two districts, which is very dangerous and stressful for the dispatchers, ' Fujioka said.
Council member Esther Kia 'aina suggested increasing the task force's 90-day timeline to produce a written report to 180 days.
'People who are going to be part of this task force will have their own opinions, and you don't rush something, ' Kia 'aina said. 'You discuss it and ensure that out of the collective voices you will hopefully have a unified front to wean out what should be actionable items.'
Tupola said she was agreeable to a verbal amendment to increase the timeline to 180 days, but said, 'It does not prohibit us from finishing it faster.'
Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board Chair Philip Ganaban told the Star-­Advertiser after the meeting that his board supports Tupola's Resolution 160.
A lifelong Waianae resident, Ganaban said increasing police presence in the area is a good thing, but it won't solve all crimes that occur there, particularly gun-related violence involving youth and families.
'We need to really find ways to make things positive for these kids, ' he said, adding that the cost of living and a lack of youth-oriented programs along the Waianae Coast increase the challenges. 'So these kids can fall into the wrong crowd, and can get them things that they can't do the legal way—which comes with the guns.'
'Don't get me wrong, I would love to have more police, ' he added, 'but I think it's not going to prevent anything.'
To promote prevention and education, Ganaban said he favors restarting Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., or the Scared Straight program where at-risk youth are exposed to jail or prison life.
'Those are good programs that are not in the schools anymore, and I don't know why, ' he said. 'That's one of those HPD things that they did have that actually really made a difference when it started at a young age with the kids.'
Jeff Merz, the Waikiki Neighborhood Board's Subdistrict 1 vice chair, said he favored improvements to HPD's staffing but also recognized that crime in the island's prime tourist zone will still occur.
'Again, anything we can do to shed light on the issue is good, but I'd like to see some absolutes, or some things that come out of this that are actionable and that would need to be required to be taken by the city, ' Merz, a 23-year Waikiki resident, said of the proposed task force. 'If those are the recommendations that they have to implement, or try to make them so we can solve this issue, as opposed to coming up with a report and putting it on the shelf.'
'So I think if it's got some teeth to it, and the City Council and the mayor agree to implement the recommendations, then I think we have something to stand on there, ' he added.
However, Merz noted recruiting for police officers in high-priced Oahu is difficult.
'We're not the only city suffering from a lack of police officers ; it's nationwide, ' he said. 'Possibly, we're not going to be able to fill all of those positions ; it's expensive in Hawaii, and it's just not an occupation that a lot of people want to pursue.'
Merz said employing new technologies—including ground-based surveillance cameras and aerial drones—may be alternate ways for law enforcement to reduce crime in Waikiki and elsewhere on the island.
TASK FORCE REQUIREMENTS The HPD staffing and retention task force, formed by Resolution 160, will be composed of the following nine members :—The Council chair, or the chair's designee—A representative from the mayor's office—The chief of police, or the chief's designee—A Honolulu Police Commission representative—A city Department of Human Resources representative—A State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers representative—A Hawaii Government Employees Association representative—A current HPD officer, to be appointed by the Council—A representative from another police department with success in reducing officer vacancies, also to be appointed by the Council.
Once formed, Resolution 160 says the new task force should study the following issues :—Analyze HPD recruitment and retention challenges and identify the primary causes of vacancies.—Review and evaluate existing hiring and retention initiatives, including financial incentives.—Assess HPD's hiring standards to determine whether they are unnecessarily restrictive and preventing qualified applicants from being hired.—Develop a strategic plan with short-and long-term recommendations to reduce vacancies and improve officer retention.—Evaluate HPD's budget to ensure funding is directed toward staffing priorities.—Submit a report to the Council within 180 days of the adoption of the resolution, which provides the task force's analysis and recommendations, and provide a copy of the report to the Honolulu Police Commission to support its evaluation of the chief of police.
Source : Resolution 160