Police exodus
may harm safety,
SHOPO claims

The union has scheduled
a statewide rally tomorrow
to raise awareness

By Jaymes Song
Star-Bulletin

The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers says public safety could be jeopardized by the loss of police officers moving to the mainland for higher pay.

Sgt. Rick Wheeler, SHOPO's Oahu chapter chairman, said public safety isn't threatened now, but it could be in the future.

"My personal opinion is our officers are trying to do the best they can, but we're losing people," he said. "And it does create a public safety problem. And they're continuing to bring people in on overtime to take care of the manpower shortages."

The police union has scheduled a statewide rally tomorrow morning to raise awareness of the issue.

According to the Honolulu Police Department, 23 officers have resigned in the first five months of this year.

The department has been about 200 officers short of its allotment of 1,900 since 1994, when hundreds accepted early retirement. To fill the vacancies, the department has accelerated hiring, realigned patrol beats and allocated overtime.

The department exhausted its $10 million annual overtime budget in less than eight months this fiscal year. The city postponed retroactive pay increases to supplement the overtime budget by $1.2 million.

For the fiscal year starting July 1, the overtime budget was squeezed even more to $8.5 million, according to HPD's Finance Division.

"They are continuing to bring people in to fill the gaps," Wheeler said. "They are moving people around to areas that are short of manpower. So the chief is making an honest attempt to remedy the problem, but it doesn't change the fact that we are short."

Wheeler said retaining officers is important because once an officer finishes training school, the city has invested $70,000 to $100,000 in that person.

"We need more officers," he said. "We need something to keep the officers we have here. . . . Let's face it, pay and benefits help. You don't want to take a career that's going to leave your family dry."

Officers are leaving for mainland departments, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where salaries are generally 18 percent to 21 percent higher, according to SHOPO.

"They're moving for the lower cost of living, to live a better lifestyle, to buy a home, to send their kids to better schools," he said.

Police protest What: SHOPO rally When: 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. tomorrow Where: State Capitol on Oahu. Other sites on neighbor islands.