LIHU‘E — A new survey assessing the opinion of Kaua‘i Police Department personnel on their workplace showed positive scores across most categories.
But problems with the survey’s implementation raise questions about how much can be gained from the responses.
The assessment — conducted by the Police Commission between October and November 2021 — asks respondents to rank 19 questions about their work environment on a scale of 1 to 5.
A score of 1 or 2 meant not certain, 3 to 4 meant somewhat, and 5 was clear. Just 76 KPD officers completed the anonymous survey.
Average scores tended to fall in the 3-to-4 range, including for questions like “My coworkers are committed to doing quality work?” which received a score of 3.79, and “I have the opportunity to do what interests me?” (3.25).
KPD Chief Todd Raybuck said at an August Police Commission meeting he saw “a lot of positivity” in the results, but added that he had “a lot more questions as a response to this survey than answers.”
The questions “I know what is expected of me at work?” and “My lieutenant seem to care about my well-being,” received the highest marks, with average scores of 4.36 and 4.15, respectively. “To see such a positive response from people about their interactions with lieutenants shows us that their lieutenants are engaged,” said Raybuck.
Raybuck said the survey pointed to a need for improvement in communicating their long-term plans.
Questions “I have access to the information necessary for me to understand the bigger picture of KPD’s major long-range objectives and plans?” and “My opinion and ideas seem to count?” both perform poorly, scoring 2.69 and 2.96.
The survey caused confusion when it was deployed, recalled and then redeployed.
Assistant Chief of Police Bryson Ponce reported at the Police Commission meeting that he received a survey with room for comments — but it disappeared from his inbox in 45 minutes. “That’s what happened to a lot of other commanders,” said Ponce. “If low command staff responded it may have been because of that.”
The survey had a 32% response rate — slightly below the commission’s goal of 33% — with 76 total respondents.
Another issue that came up at the meeting was that the survey, based on a similar survey conducted by the California Highway Patrol, lacked a comments section. Some commissioners and KPD personnel supported adding a section for responses in future iterations of the survey.
“By allowing comments you specifically know why it works, and what improvements can be made,” said Commissioner Roy Morita.
The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers Kaua‘i Chapter was critical of the implementation of the survey and the results.
“The Police Commission’s survey is riddled with problems, the largest being the abysmal participation rate by KPD employees,” said SHOPO Kaua‘i Chapter Chair Kennison Nagahisa.
“The survey does show that employees give the department mediocre ratings in almost every category. These results should’ve triggered a call to action by the commission to address the issues identified by the survey, but we’ve seen nothing since the survey was conducted in October of last year,” said Nagahisa.
Nagahisa also raised concerns about the survey’s lack of options for personnel to evaluate the chief. Though one question asks “my commander seems to care about my wellbeing?” — this was taken by most respondents to refer to their direct supervisor rather than the chief.
SHOPO conducted its own survey, which features an assessment of officers looking to leave the department in the near team, which was completed by over 80% of its members.
