The Chief at One Year
A positive, take-charge attitude
By Rod Ohira
helped Police Chief Lee Donohue
earn high marks in his first year
Star-BulletinLee Donohue's crisis-management skills were put to the test by eight police shootings, mainland recruitment of officers and overtime issues - all in his first 12 months as chief.
"Given all the problems he had to deal with, he did an excellent job," outgoing Police Commission Chairman Ron Taketa said. "I don't think any other first-year chief could have accomplished what he did."
Knowledge gleaned from 34-1/2 years of up-through-the-ranks service gives Donohue a clear understanding of Honolulu Police Department operations and makes him a strong, confident leader, added Taketa. "It's reflective of his leadership style that he's not afraid of accepting input from others."
Honolulu's eighth police chief also brings a positive approach to the job.
As one commander noted, "what the chief has repeated to us most often is 'every day is always a good day or great day, never a bad day.'"
Donohue had already served four months as acting chief when the Police Commission made his appointment permanent in April.
"Personally, it's been difficult at times but also rewarding and exciting," Donohue said of his first year. "The job is everything I expected it to be. There were no big surprises."
The department is feeling the financial pinch but making do, he said.
Two big goals
Establishing accountability and managing overtime were two of Donohue's goals accomplished last year."It's better to be judged on how you handle your bad times as opposed to the good times, so I think as a department we've done well and I'm very proud of our officers," Donohue said.
"Our budget was $141 million this year and we're going to make it. We had requested $14 million for overtime and were alloted $8.5 million.
"Knowing this and the crisis that we had last year, we had to come up with better managing of our overtime. We have commanders who are now accountable to report every month on their overtime. If they're not making budget, they're expected to explain why."
Overtime costs, however, are unpredictable in police work.
"There are things we have no control over," Donohue said. "An example would be the Pacific Palisades (standoff in October), which cost us $100,000 in overtime."
What is predictable, however, is that court appearances by officers will take nearly half of the overtime budget.
"Right now, our biggest cost is court. It's costing us about 43 percent of our overtime. In some districts, it's running between 50 and 70 percent."'
HPD's legislative package in 1999 will include a proposal to have the Judiciary pay half of the department's court costs, Donohue said.
Chairman Mufi Hannemann said Donohue is working closely with the City Council.
"The overtime problem did not occur only on his watch; every previous chief had the same problem," Hannemann said. "Our biggest challenge is to help him with his overtime costs.
"He's been very responsive to the fact the city has certain financial constraints and cannot fund everything and we've been able to have candid discussions with him."
Seeking federal financial assistance and a portion of the $3 tax on rental car fees are two possibilities, Hannemann said.
The shootings
Police were involved in eight shootings last year despite a continued drop in reported violent crime in Honolulu - which Donohue said indicates that officers are encountering suspects who are more violent.The prosecuting attorney's office has cleared police in all but one of the eight cases, which resulted in three deaths. A determination is still pending in the July Pupukea shooting death of Fortunato Barques III.
"We were all under scrutiny because of the cases," Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle said. "But the chief stayed out of it, and I respect the fact that he let us do our job."
Said U.S. Attorney Steven Alm: "(Donohue) stood up for the police officers because they have the responsibility for keeping order, but also said he would look into less-than-lethal alternatives."
Donohue said the department is experimenting with bean-bag shotgun rounds in the field; they are being issued to sergeants to use at their discretion.
Mainland recruitment
The chief, meanwhile, expects to start feeling the impact of mainland recruitment of HPD officers early this year."I'm looking at losing about 50 officers to the Northwest by the end of February," he said. "I just signed out 10 officers who are leaving for the Northwest. Eight were hired, but of the eight, two are married to other police officers, so I'm actually losing 10.
"I know King County (Wash.) is looking to hire 100 officers next year, and Portland (Ore.) is planning to take 18 of the 63 officers it tested here and may take more than that.
"This doesn't include the interest we're getting from Las Vegas, which is looking for Asian officers, and Los Angeles."
Hawaii's pay scale is competitive with other areas but only up to a point, said Donohue.
"Where we lose out is about the fifth year," he said. "I had an officer with six years of service who was making $36,000 annually. He started on Dec. 14 with King County sheriff's at $47,000 and come January, he gets a 3 percent raise."
And finding replacements isn't easy.
Donohue said only half of 1,000 potential recruits recently passed a general aptitude test and that fewer than 50 will qualify for training.
"It's really tough because of the standards we have, but it's necessary because if we don't have good police officers, we're going to pay for it on the back end with civil suits," Donohue said.
"They're holding the line and have even upgraded checks on new recruits," Alm said in praising HPD for maintaining high standards. "It's a slow and steady process."
Donohue, who favors just compensation for officers, has suggested fuel and tourist taxes to fund public safety wage increases. Oil companies dedicating 5 cents per gallon - if there's a rollback in gas prices here - or money from traffic fines are other ideas, he said.
"I would like to see us get monies derived from uncontested moving and parking citations," Donohue said. "But anything that's contested, I don't think we should get because I'm afraid our officers may be perceived as mercenaries. There's a real fine balance here."
Community policing
gains approvalDonohue cites the back-to-basics
By Rod Ohira
effort as part of the reason crime is down
Star-BulletinHonolulu's crime rate has dropped 10 percent since last January - through November - and 32 percent since 1996, says Honolulu's police chief. "The surprising part is there was an expected increase in juvenile crimes which never occurred," Chief Lee Donohue said. "So maybe a lot of the intervention and prevention programs are kicking in now.
"I think another big factor was the strong stance of (former) Department of Public Safety Director Keith Kaneshiro in finding prison space and making people serve their time."
Donohue also credits the back-to-basics work of patrol officers.
"Crime is down for many reasons and although we cannot prove it, we believe that our evolution toward community policing over the last six years has been an important factor," he said.
Retired police chief Michael Nakamura said expanding the concept from district community policing teams to all officers was key.
"From the outside looking in, I think we need to move rapidly into community policing," said Nakamura, now a Honolulu Community College instructor. "We need to get away from teams and have all officers involved."
Nakamura is confident Donohue can implement the next step because of his strong ties to patrol.
"As my deputy, he provided me with the strength of his patrol knowledge," Nakamura said. "He's well respected by the rank and file."
Donohue, meanwhile, is advancing his goal of creating a strategic plan for the department.
He sees "HPD 2003" being a broad policy document that will chart a course for the department's 2,500 uniformed and civilian employees into the next millennium.
The strategy is needed to put police back in touch with the community, Donohue said.
"Technology allowed us to be more responsive, but we lost touch with the community," he said. "As it evolved in the 1960s, there was a revolution in policing in which we said no more decentralization, we're going to centralize everything and train our officers to do everything they need to do.
"The strategy worked. But what happened is it paralyzed the whole system because we became so efficient that the other systems couldn't keep up. With all that technology and efficiency, we lost touch with the community.
"We were telling the community what we thought was best for them as far as policing. Now the thinking has changed again. It's going back to the community to see what they want, what they feel is necessary for their safety."
John Campbell, a Portland, Ore.-based consultant, is providing the strategic plan's blueprint.
"What it will do is align our leadership and management at all levels with our mission statement," Donohue said. "Then we'll set goals for crime reduction."
"He'll present his views in January as to where we want to be strategically," he said.
A steering committee comprised of staffers from the department's six bureaus, HPD's management analyst and a Police Commission representative will solicit input for the plan from city agencies, unions and community groups.
Technological advances will soon be turning the Honolulu Police Department into a fully electronic operation. Technology is
moving HPD toward
paperless system"We're fast approaching the state where we're becoming paperless on our report systems," Chief Lee Donohue said. "Everything is going to be done electronically right from the cars, and this is all going to happen in the next 18 months."
The department is nearing completion of the first two phases of its three-phase telecommunications upgrade project after 10 years.
Phase 2 involves the move to an 800 Megahertz radio system, which operates in both analog and digital modes. Coverage needs to be improved before regular beat officers can switch to the digital mode, Donohue said.
In Phase 3, to happen this year, computers will be installed in patrol cars; the computer-aided dispatch system will be replaced, and officers will be using an online writing system for reports.
The department is also installing a document-imaging system that will allow police to scan documents so officers can access them directly from their computers.
Other major 1998 projects included:
"Big Bang," Hawaii's first "weed and seed" bust. Staged July 31 around Mayor Wright Homes and Chinatown, it resulted in 13 federal indictments for drug dealing around public housing projects and schools, and 30 arrests.
Rod Ohira, Star-Bulletin
