First group of
isle police heading
for jobs in Seattle
'Honolulu's Finest' could suffer
By Jaymes K. Song
further once Las Vegas
begins recruiting
Star-Bulletindozen Honolulu police officers are scheduled to go to Seattle in two weeks to complete testing for entry into the King County Sheriff's Office.
They are the first group to be invited as a result of recruiting efforts in September by five Pacific Northwest law enforcement departments.
"It was a fantastic trip with great results," said King County recruiter Valerie Holmes.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department also is expressing interest in "Honolulu's Finest," but has not planned any recruiting trips to Oahu.
According to Las Vegas recruiter Sgt. Charles Hank, his 1,900-officer department wants to hire 250 officers in 1999 and 250 more in 2000.
Hank said one of the main reasons Las Vegas is looking to the islands - and also the Bay area - is to recruit Asian Americans.
The Las Vegas area has an Asian-American population of about 5 to 10 percent, he said. His department, which is 2 percent Asian American, wants to mirror the ethnic makeup of one of the nation's fastest-growing areas.
The lure is similar to the departments in the Pacific Northwest: a flourishing economy, no state income tax, a strong public education system and significantly higher pay.
Las Vegas' entry-level salary is $37,000, while Honolulu officers start at $33,000. In seven years, officers in Las Vegas will make $52,000 - about the same as a Honolulu lieutenant with double the years of service.
The cost of living in Las Vegas also is an attraction.
"You can go buy a 1,800- to 2,000-square-foot home with a pool-size lot for $125,000," Hank said. "And that's brand new."
He said the department is considering "lateral transfers," which would allow recruited officers to be credited with their years of service.
A potential exodus of officers to the mainland could hurt the Honolulu Police Department.
HPD has been short-staffed since 200 officers opted for an early retirement plan in 1996. The department recently said it has enough cadets in the police academy to fill the vacancies.
In the meantime, millions of dollars have been spent on overtime and an accelerated hiring program to fill the void.
The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers said Honolulu could lose a substantial number of officers, with many patrol officers in their prime years showing a willingness to relocate and an additional 200 officers eligible to retire.
Mayor Jeremy Harris yesterday said he was not alarmed by the relatively small number of officers going to Seattle for more testing, but added that the city values each officer and doesn't want to lose talented personnel.
"We would very much like to pay our police officers more," he said. "We're very concerned about them leaving the islands, and we want them to stay, but we have a severe budget crunch in the city."
One option being analyzed now, suggested by police Chief Lee Donohue and used in some mainland jurisdictions, is attaching a special surcharge on gasoline sales and earmarking revenues for police, Harris said.
But Harris noted that pay increases for officers from 1995 until next July will amount to 13 percent, compared with no pay increases for United Public Workers members.
The counties, state and police union currently are in negotiations for a new contract to take effect next year, and Harris said the issue of officers leaving for the mainland "clearly has become a tool in the collective-bargaining process through the media."
Of the 12 HPD officers and three from other departments to be tested in Seattle, 10 will be in uniform by January, mainland officials said. They will have to go through psychological, physical, polygraph and background tests.
Two hundred of the 270 officers who took King County's written test in September passed. The 74 percent passing rate is far above the normal rate of 50 percent, officials said.
Because of time constraints, only 48 of the 200 officers were given interviews, and 44 passed.
Holmes said all the officers interviewed loved the HPD and their co-workers. But they didn't like the pay.
"I was getting that answer from almost everybody," she said. "They said they're not getting paid enough to make ends meet without getting an extra job or having their wives work."
The Seattle department is planning another trip in late January or early February to interview the remaining candidates, said King County detective Malcolm Chang, a former HPD sergeant.
"They write well, they have good experience and they're trained well," Holmes said. "They're good, valuable officers that any department would look for."
