Police criticized for memo on traffic-citation quotas
| • | Map: Traffic citations by district |
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Waikiki police major who issued a controversial memo directing his officers to issue four citations per hour while working overtime on a special traffic enforcement shift said his directive was only intended to be a guideline.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
"I wanted the allotted overtime to be effectively utilized," Police Maj. Thomas Nitta said. "The federals use four per hour so we thought that was reasonable."
June's traffic crackdown was the result of overtime money made available to police districts at the end of the fiscal year. But critics of the program say a guideline of four citations per hour amounts to a quota on the number of tickets officers should issue.
But Alex Garcia, O'ahu Chapter chairman of the State of Hawai'i Organization of Police Officers, criticized the directive which he said establishes quotas and sends the wrong message to the public. "It jeopardizes an officer's integrity," Garcia said. "Officers are also trained to give counseling and education.
"When you do mass pullovers, it looks like you're going for quantity, not quality."
Garcia has also publicly encouraged some people to contest tickets received during the traffic enforcement period from June 13 to 30. But the Honolulu city prosecutor's office will treat every ticket as any other violation, spokesman Jim Fulton said when asked about the public challenging citations.
The three-week enforcement period was the result of each of the Honolulu Police Department's eight districts being authorized 1,000 hours of overtime for patrol officers whose regular duties are not concentrated solely on traffic enforcement.
Assistant Chief Stephen Watarai, commander of HPD's Central Patrol Bureau, said quotas contradict department policy and none were ordered. Some district commanders, however, used the ratio of four citations per hour based on federal-grant standards to give patrol officers an idea of what was expected during the overtime traffic enforcement work.
The Waikiki memo, which was approved and supported by Nitta but written by a supervisor, provided location selection, details of enforcement and expectations, Watarai noted. "In total, it was a memo to ensure that officers did not abuse OT and would be visible (to the public) the entire time they were working OT," he said.
"You shouldn't pick out one or two sentences (from the memo) and judge it by that," Watarai added.
District commanders applied the extra overtime money to traffic enforcement in different ways.
In the Kalihi District, for example, Maj. Stephen Kornegay's goal was for his officers to be more visible. "If it was between (citation) numbers or being visible, I told them I'd rather have visibility," Kornegay said.
Money for 1,000 hours of overtime per district in June came from unspent money budgeted for a "worst-case scenario" Asian Development Bank situation and other special emergency programs, said HPD's top fiscal officer Maj. Susan Ballard.
Garcia is also critical of HPD policy toward the end of the fiscal year. He says it frees up overtime money for initiatives such as a three-week, islandwide traffic crackdown instead of spreading it out over the year.
"There are 151 authorized patrol beats on this island and because of overtime restraints, 25 to 28 beats each day are left uncovered," Garcia said. "We can cover all the beats with overtime."
Despite Nitta's directive, Waikiki District police officers cited 1,942 motorists during the three-week enforcement period, or about three per hour.
Here is a breakdown of the citations issued by each of Oahu's eight districts during the overtime enforcement period:
• District 1 (Central Honolulu): 1,500 citations, most of them for blocking intersections, running red lights and non-use of occupant restraints, said Maj. Michael Tucker.
• District 2 (Wahiawa): Maj. William Gulledge used OT on "Operation No Fatals," in which officers cover four different zones 24 hours a day around dangerous Kaukonahua Road. Since April, officers have issued 2,000 speeding and 250 hazardous moving citations, arrested nine people for DUI and made 23 arrests for other offenses off traffic stops. "The OT money for June allowed us to free-up an on-duty guy for beat work by allowing us to use someone on OT for traffic enforcement," Gulledge said.
• District 3 (Pearl City): 1,784 citations included 659 for seat-belt violations and 525 for speeding, said Capt. Stephen Kim.
• District 4 (Windward): 1,994 citations of which 972 were for speeding, 713 for other moving violations and 159 for seat-belt offenses. Lt. John Thompson said officers also issued 139 warnings. In addition, 12 people were arrested in traffic stops, including two burglary suspects and a fugitive wanted on a $10,000 warrant.
• District 5 (Kalihi): Kornegay reported 472 of 1,063 citations issued were for speeding. Also 191 citations were for seat-belt violations, 61 for no insurance, 20 for DUI and two for racing.
• District 6 (Waikiki): 1,942 citations, of which 1,417 were for passenger-restraint violations, Nitta said.
• District 7 (East Honolulu): Maj. Butch Robinson's district used 952 OT hours and issued 1,276 citations — 617 for speeding, 115 for running red lights and 544 for seat-belt violations.
• District 8 (Kapolei-Wai'anae): Maj. Alan Fujimoto reported 771 citations, of which 348 were for speeding.
