HPD’s newest substation
gets mixed reviews
Putting East Honolulu's police substation in Kaimuki -- rather than Hawaii Kai -- is expected to save the city more than $4 million in construction costs, officials said yesterday in a news conference.
The site, at Fort Ruger on 22nd Avenue, will also allow police to work more closely with the U.S. attorney's office and the Hawaii Army National Guard's anti-drug program, as both will have representatives based next door at the National Guard armory.
"More and more, we in the military have seen a connection between drugs ... and terrorism," National Guard Maj. Gen. Robert Lee told reporters yesterday at a news conference at the fort, "so it's absolutely important that we strengthen and build this relationship."
The station will open in October with a trailer and eight officers.
Construction on the 3,600-square-foot station will begin early next year, last about six months and cost about $1.2 million, said city Managing Director Ben Lee.
Police will move into existing buildings as they are emptied over the next five to six years by the National Guard, whose personnel are moving to Kalaeloa.
Some 300 officers could be stationed at the site by 2010, Honolulu police Chief Lee Donahue said. It will take three or four years for the station to be manned around the clock.
"In this day and time," said U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo, "it's important for partnerships and collaborations to take place."
Kubo said his office's planned satellite station at Fort Ruger is the first of its kind in the state and could serve as an operations base should the Prince Kuhio federal building be shut down because of a terrorist attack.
Officials have been considering where to put a police substation in the East Honolulu district since the mid-1990s.
Until early this year, city planners had pegged Keahole Street in Hawaii Kai as the future site of an East Honolulu station. That facility would have cost $5.5 million to construct. Earlier, the station was destined for Aina Haina.
But, Donahue said, "When the opportunity came for (Fort Ruger), we saw it as a site that would provide equity in policing."
Also, there will be one police officer headquartered at Hawaii Kai's satellite city hall all day, every day, he said.
But some Hawaii Kai residents, who say there is not enough police presence in their community, are upset about the station's location.
"We've always wanted a full police station," said Lester Muraoka, vice chairman of the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board. "East Honolulu is a growing community. ... That was a great disappointment to the community that it did not get approved."
Kuliouou-Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board Chairman Robert Chuck said he is not sure that police officers will be able to respond to emergencies in his community any quicker once the Kaimuki station is finished.
"They'd still be coming from town," he said. "Living in the suburbs, I'm not that happy about it being away from us."
