Kapolei Police Kapolei police officers are getting ready to staff their receiving desk on a 24-hour basis, starting tonight at 9:30. Until now, limited staff has kept the receiving desk, which enables officers to fingerprint, photograph and process arrestees, from being utilized at all.
Station open for
business tonight
Officers will be able to get
back on the road faster
after arrestsBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com"We're going to play it by ear," said Kapolei Lt. Ryan Borges. "Whatever assets we've got, we're trying our best to man this thing.
"But we think we're ready. Ready to go 24-7, 365 days a year."
To get ready, Kapolei police held what Borges called a "dry run" this week by processing and booking arrestees that came in during regular business hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The first Kapolei booking turned out to be a 28-year-old Ewa Beach man who was picked up Thursday for domestic abuse and terroristic threatening.
"We'll hold guys for a shift, then take them to central receiving in town at the end of that shift," Borges said. "This weekend should be OK providing we don't get swamped."
"Otherwise, we'll have to shut down and start sending arrestees to Waianae and Pearl City."When the Kapolei Police Station first opened last summer, Mayor Jeremy Harris had emphasized that the station's cellblock would be a key component toward making Leeward police work much more efficient. It was expected that by the end of 2000, all suspects arrested from Pearl City, Wahiawa, Mililani, the North Shore and Leeward Oahu who cannot get out on bail or are required to stay overnight would be processed and held at Kapolei, instead of downtown.
"It means police officers will be able to spend more time in District 8," Harris said in a Star-Bulletin interview in July 2000. Referring to Leeward Oahu, Harris said during the same interview, "It's the fastest-growing area on the island, and we need to provide police services for the growing community, and also for the future."
More than a year later, the $13.5 million police station, with enough cells to hold about 90 suspects, was still not being used.
The receiving desk at HPD's downtown headquarters also holds close to 100 detainees and is staffed with 13 officers, one sergeant and one lieutenant per shift. In contrast, this weekend, the Kapolei receiving desk will be manned by one lieutenant and two officers per shift.
"Nobody's complaining; we'll do what we have to do," said Borges, smiling. "We're pioneers out here."
More staffing is expected by November, when officers currently undergoing field training will be available for their first assignment.
"I'm glad that they're starting, but they could have done this six months ago," said Detective Alex Garcia, also the Oahu Chapter chairman for the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers. "They had enough manpower to put together a skeleton crew like this and add officers as they became available."
"But in any case this will help out tremendously. Instead of wasting a couple of hours on the road, officers will be able to get back on patrol faster, and that's great for the public."
Besides possible overcrowding, Borges said he did not foresee any problems switching to a 24-hour shift.
"Just let everyone know we're open," he said.
Patrol officers began using the station on June 16, 2000. The city intended the Kapolei station to replace the cramped Waianae Police Station as the new command center of Patrol District 8, which stretches from Kaena Point to the Ewa Plain.