Wayne "Waipa" Chun Fat is one of the directors of security for both the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton Waikiki hotels, which on Tuesday were behind him on the left and right, respectively. Chun Fat has gotten into the groove maintaining security and safety in an environment he dubs, "A city within a city."
Keeping it secure
Wayne Chun Fat leads a shift
of security guards who keep
two hotels safe
Wayne "Waipa" Chun FatTitle: Relief supervisor for the third security watchJob: Manages the third shift of security officers at the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton Waikiki hotels
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Question: What is your exact title?
Answer: Relief supervisor for the third watch. We have three watches because we're on 24 hours, and the third watch basically is from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Q: How many people do you supervise?
A: I usually have about five to six security officers under me, and we're tasked with both the Royal Hawaiian and the Sheraton Waikiki properties.
Q: What is your main responsibility?
A: My main responsibility is basically to oversee the security and safety officers.
Q: What kinds of things are you looking for when you patrol the grounds?
A: From my experience in the police department, this job is as challenging, if not more so, as the police department, because these two hotels are like a city within a city.
We take care of the security part, making sure about the safety of our guests, as well as look for water leaks around the hotels or any type of discrepancies involving safety issues. So we're kind of like police officers, fire inspectors, and we're also first responders. We're all trained in first-aid, CPR, and being proficient in the use of the defibrillator, which is kind of like a shock machine.
Security is maybe about 20 percent of our job, and the other 80 percent is really about safety and PR, making sure our guests are comfortable and happy and they're safe.
Q: Do you all have to wear uniforms?
A: We have an aloha shirt, and all of us wear name tags to identify us as security. We all wear black trousers, and we carry around our radio, handcuffs and also, another crucial part of our job is we have to have our facemask, in case we have to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Q: A facemask?
A: Well, even in HPD (the Honolulu Police Department), we were issued these little devices. Basically what it does is protect you. After you clear the airway, you put this on the person and there's a piece that comes out where you can blow air into the person, but if anything comes back out, if the person regurgitates anything, the device will protect us from contacting that and possibly getting any diseases. So that's an important part of our gear.
In fact, to me that's more important than the handcuffs because we seldom have to deal with disorderly people.
Wayne "Waipa" Chun Fat on Tuesday walked through one of the kitchens of the Sheraton Waikiki's banquet facilities, as part of his job to make sure everything is safe and secure.
A: When we come across people where there's going to be a physical confrontation, our staff is professional enough that even if this person is all out trying to strike us, I've never had any of our officers strike back at this person. For instance, we had this one guy a few weeks ago, he'd been in a fight and was all bloody, and he started barreling through the lobby, pushing guests. Me and my partner put up our hands and were going "Wait, hold on, hold on," and he just started swinging at us. But I'm proud to say we subdued him without hurting him.
Q: Do you guys ever have to run into the ocean or the pools?
A: I can honestly say that I have. The Mai Tai catamaran pulls right up to the beach fronting the Sheraton, and sometimes somebody's sick or passed out. So sometimes I go into the water and climb into the boat and bring this person in for medical attention.
Q: Do you like to be sneaky on patrol or is the point to be noticed?
A: Actually we want to be noticed. We feel that proactive patrolling is a better way to do things. So instead of hiding out in an area and waiting for a call, I like to have my men out there and visible.
And I'm pretty sure that of all the employees of the hotel, the security staff is authorized to go anywhere in the hotel -- the kitchens or wherever -- because we are concerned not only about the common areas, but also the employee areas, because we have a zero-tolerance policy for employee violence in the workplace.
Q: Do you know how many folks work in the hotels?
A: That I'm not sure. I believe when I first started it was maybe 1,300 to 1,500 people. But they've had to rehire a lot of people that they had to let go after 9/11 because the hotels have really picked up. There has been no slow season this year.
Q: How many rooms are there at the two hotels?
A: There's a little over 1,700 rooms in the Sheraton. At the Royal Hawaiian there's a total of about 526 rooms.
Q: How closely do you work with HPD?
A: Very closely. Especially having some off-duty and former officers on staff, we work really well with them.
I can honestly say our security staff, with our backgrounds and the different hats we wear, we could be compared with HPD, HFD (the Honolulu Fire Department). ... We're also liquor inspectors. We walk into the (hotel) liquor establishments (the various restaurants, bars and nightclubs) and try to make sure no underage people are being served alcohol. We do this daily, for all our liquor establishments.
Chun Fat perused the liquor establishment log in the security office of the Sheraton Waikiki.
A: Actually, I don't have my instructor's certificate. I was a student in kenpo karate under Marino Tiwanak. And how I got introduced to that basically is while I was on the SWAT team in the police department, my partner was Mike Tiwanak, and his father was the instructor, a professor. The father passed away and now Michael is a professor. So these days I've been training under the tutelage of Professor Michael Tiwanak, and I've been helping instruct the children.
One more thing I'd like to mention is Skyline, a nightclub that runs out of the Hanohano Room on the first and third Saturdays. It's been going on now almost two years, and from the beginning till now, it's become very popular. And that's a real security issue because on those nights, oh my goodness, it gets really crowded.
My (kenpo) instructor, Michael Tiwanak, has his own security company, and he is contracted by the nightclub promoter, so we have a really good rapport between the security staff from the hotel and the security staff from the promoter, because basically all the guys from the promoter's staff are friends of Michael, so we're all like family.
And you know, we don't walk around like big bouncers, trying to intimidate people. We want people to feel comfortable. The dance floor is always packed. If anything, the issue is making sure the fire escapes are clear, and that no underage people get up there.
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