HPD deputy chief
By Jaymes K. Song
taking federal job
as drug fighter
Star-BulletinThe Honolulu Police Department's second in command will retire at the end of next month take a position with a national anti-drug program.
Senior Deputy Police Chief William Clark, 55, who yesterday submitted his notice effective Nov. 30, is retiring with 33 years and 11 months service with HPD to become executive director of the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.
According to the city officials, he will coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement across the state to combat drug-trafficking.
His first day with with the federal program will be Dec. 1.
Clark, a New Jersey native, has been an advocate for residents helping to police their neighborhoods since joining the department in 1966.
He currently chairs the Aiea Neighborhood Board, serves on the boards of the Honolulu Police Federal Credit Union and Kalihi Business Association, is an adjunct professor of business at the University of Hawaii's West Oahu campus and Leeward College, and is on Chaminade University's graduate business school faculty.
In 1993, Clark was named city Manager of the Year for his work in community-policing.
Community-policing has been credited as a main reason for decreasing crime on Oahu in the past five years.
Clark also started the successful HPD's Citizen's Police Academy in 1994. The academy is an eight-week, free program for the public to experience what officers routinely go through and see how the department operates.
"Chief Clark has contributed immeasurably to HPD and to our city for over three decades, including nearly three years as the department's second in command," Mayor Jeremy Harris said yesterday. "He is a superb leader and manager who has been instrumental in making the department one of the nation's best.
"He has been a role model for both our younger officers and many within the community."
Clark resides in Aiea, where he is chairman of the neighborhood board. He also teaches criminal justice and business administration at Leeward Community College and UH-West Oahu.
A new deputy police chief will be appointed by Police Chief Lee Donohue, who has not returned to full-time duty since suffering cardiac arrest on Sept. 18.
A date on the appointment has not been set, said a department spokeswoman.
Clark was unavailable for comment yesterday.
