HPD talking to UH about patrol plan

The Honolulu Police Department wants to further discuss strategies in how to cover the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus before approving security there.

Last week, university officials prematurely announced the approval of a security agreement with police to have two armed officers providing dusk-to-dawn patrols starting this week.

But the command staff at the department was unaware that such an arrangement was being made, and therefore the plan was postponed.

"Unfortunately, we were informed when we read it in the newspaper," said police Chief Boisse Correa. "We're there to support people, but at the same time we want to discuss some of the strategies they're coming up with."

Correa would not be specific on the strategies, but said that the section for the hire of off-duty uniformed officers did not follow protocol in coordinating the planning.

"Those decisions were not cleared through the upper echelon," Correa said. "We're having meetings with (UH officials) now to discuss these issues. We want to make sure it's a safe place for our students."

The university put out a news release Wednesday announcing that patrols would take place from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Two off-duty officers were to be hired at $55 an hour for two six-hour shifts at a cost of about $280,000 a year.

The university recently increased security at the dorms in the wake of a burglary and sexual assault in a freshman dorm last month.

Manoa campus security Chief Neal Sakamoto has said the university is working on hiring eight additional campus security officers and discovering whether it can locate a Honolulu police substation on campus.