Kaua‘i Police Chief Darryl Perry said yesterday the Kaua‘i Police Department is “behind the 8-ball” in its attempt to rid the island of crime because it needs to fill vacancies and, eventually, expand its current beats to provide better coverage.
Kaua‘i Police Chief Darryl Perry said yesterday the Kaua‘i Police Department is “behind the 8-ball” in its attempt to rid the island of crime because it needs to fill vacancies and, eventually, expand its current beats to provide better coverage.
“We’re stretched to the limit right now,” Perry said in an afternoon interview with The Garden Island. “We don’t have any bodies to spare.”
Providing his monthly report to the Police Commission earlier in the day, Perry said that the number of beats island-wide has only grown from eight to 10 in the almost 30 years since he left KPD for Honolulu in 1980, while Kaua‘i’s population has skyrocketed in that time.
According to United States Census Bureau data, the island’s population ballooned from 39,082 in 1980 to 58,463 in 2000 and was estimated at 63,004 as of July 2006, an increase of more than 60 percent from the 1980 level. Perry also said the number of cars on the island has tripled in that time.
In his report, Perry outlined his hopes for a “Committee on New Beats and Boundaries,” formed with the help of KPD’s patrol, communications and records divisions, to expand the department’s number of beats from 10 to 18 in the next five to 10 years.
Currently, four of the island’s 10 sectors fall on the North Shore, two more in the greater Lihu‘e area, and four on the Westside. There is a single patrol services officer covering each of those 10 beats at any one time, Perry said, with each beat requiring four or five full-time patrol officers to provide coverage around the clock.
Perry said the eight beats will be added in anticipation of an increasing population.
“What we want to do is have the beats designated based on growth,” he said. “It’s not a guess, but based on empirical data … that we can project into the future.”
Perry said he believed the new committee could designate and map the new beats potentially as soon as six months from now, and expected at least two of the eight beat additions to take place within one or two years.
The addition of officers is long overdue, Perry said, noting that Kaua‘i’s ratio of civilians to police officers is the worst of the four main Hawaiian islands.
According to Perry, the Hawai‘i County Police Department is at maximum strength — which reflects the number of sworn personnel authorized by budget and not necessarily the number of officers in uniform, due to unfilled vacancies — of roughly 430 officers for a de facto population, including both residents and visitors, of roughly 191,000, a ratio of 442-to-1.
Honolulu has a maximum strength of some 2,100 officers for around 950,000 civilians, a ratio of 452-to-1, and Maui’s maximum strength of 367 sworn personnel protects roughly 183,000 civilians, a ratio of 499-to-1. Together, the three islands’ ratio is 457-to-1.
Perry said that KPD’s maximum strength of 148 sworn personnel watches over a de facto population of 80,660, a ratio of 545-to-1.
To match the ratio for the other islands’ police departments, KPD would need to add 28 more positions. Bringing in four officers to cover each of the eight new beats would accomplish that.
Commission Chair Thomas Iannucci, who announced at the meeting’s outset that he will be staying on for another three-year term pending council and mayoral approval, said the shortage in coverage is an issue inherited by the current chief that should have been addressed throughout the years, but noted he is happy the department was moving forward.
In addition to the long-term budgetary concerns, 25 of KPD’s 148 already-authorized positions are currently unfilled, according to Perry’s written monthly report.
Perry told commissioners the department was in the process of reviewing background checks on 21 potential recruits, receiving thanks from Vice Chair Leon Gonsalves Jr. for trying to fill the vacancies “without compromising standards.”
Of those 21 applicants, Perry hopes that 10 to 12 make it through the recruiting and training processes to become full officers, which would cut the number of KPD vacancies almost in half.
Also at the monthly Police Commission meeting, a trio of dispatchers was honored as the September employees of the month for their roles in the Sept. 22 standoff in Kilauea.
In that incident, Kilauea Road remained closed off for about five hours before a rifle-wielding suspect was Tasered by officers and taken into custody. The 27-year-old, Kaleo Martin, also gained access to a police cruiser and used a machete to “hack away” at it, creating visible damage to the front windshield.
Donna Takiguchi, Norma Christian and Tina Young received 911 calls from witnesses, and later a communication directly from the suspect. KPD officials said that the dispatchers helped calm Martin down and connected him with police negotiators on the scene.
Neither Martin nor any officers were injured, and Perry said that the dispatchers were professional during a “volatile” incident.
According to KPD records, Martin was arrested on suspicion of 10 counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, two counts of first-degree criminal property damage, as well as one count each of second-degree criminal property damage, unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle, family abuse, and second-degree assault.
∫ Michael Levine, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or via e-mail at mlevine@kauaipubco.com
