Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Like mother,
like daughter
at HPD
Debra Collins, a new officer,
By Lori Tighe
and Sgt. Ardi Maioho become the
first mother-daughter
pair on the force
Star-BulletinThe mother told her daughter to accept the risk of dying before becoming a police officer like herself.
"Then there's reality," said Honolulu police Sgt. Ardi Maioho, with a protective look at her daughter, officer Debra Collins.
Collins was among the Honolulu police academy's 133rd recruit class that graduated last night.
Maioho and Collins are HPD's first ever mother-daughter police officers.
"We've had fathers and sons, brothers, brothers and sisters, but never a mother and daughter," said Police Chief Lee Donohue. "It's special and significant to us. Eleven percent of our force are women, and we'd like to see those numbers get up even higher."
Maioho, the mother of two daughters, worked as a police officer for nearly 20 years in Kaneohe, but never realized she was influencing her daughter to follow her path.
"This is her choice. But when I found out, I encouraged her. I wanted her to join. I like my job, I like my community," said Maioho, who held her daughter's balloons while she ran off into the graduation crowd outside the Blaisdell Concert Hall to hug and snap pictures.
Although her mother is far tougher, Collins said, she brings an inherited trait to the job: her positive attitude.
"My mom is a rare kind of person. She's an 'everything' person. She's an excellent mom. She cooks, she cleans. She goes to work. She takes care of everybody. She helps a lot of people," Collins said. "I want to be a positive influence on the community like her."
The profession's danger has increased during the past two decades, primarily because of drug use and lack of respect for law enforcement, Maioho said."I told my daughter: 'I came to terms that I may die in duty. Can you?' That's the term of the job deal.
"I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. I just pray it goes as well for her as it has for me."
Collins said coming to terms with death was the easy part. Getting through the grueling, seven-month police training was the hard part.
She had to excel in 16 exams, do 25 pushups in a minute and run 1.5 miles in 16 minutes, 28 seconds.
"I kept on telling my family, 'I don't know if I'm going to make it; I could get fired this week.' They're very strict," she saidof training.
But her mom told her repeatedly to keep trying.
The worst thing Collins had to endure was pepper spray in her face, as did the rest of the candidates.
"It was the worst feeling in the world, and I've been through childbirth," she said. "It feels like hot lava."
Graduation is only one part of her daughter's new career, and she has a lot more to learn, Maioho said.
"It's a natural process. You learn a lot of safety. I'm comfortable if you have the right attitude and a good state of mind," Maioho said.
"It's not just the police who will support her, but the community will support her. We're lucky in Hawaii that way."
Being a good officer primarily hinges on attitude and making the right decisions, Maioho told her daughter.
"We deal a lot in negativity; people call us when they need help. But you still need to stay positive," she said. "A certain amount of stress comes with the job, but sometimes you bring it on yourself."
Maioho hopes sharing her experience will cut years off her daughter's path to acquiring police knowledge.
But if her daughter ever outranks her, she said smiling, "I think I would retire."
