Vacancies trouble HPD

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Honolulu Police Department is bracing for a possible record number of officers leaving at the end of the year, with nearly 188 officers eligible for retirement.

Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue said the department, which has 2,056 officer positions, won't know for sure how many will leave until the end of November when officers are required to give their 30-day notices.

But Tenari Ma'afala, president of the police union, estimates that at least half of the eligible group will opt for retirement, which would be about double the number in past years.

Another 148 officers are also expected to leave through other forms of attrition, such as injuries or other job opportunities, Donohue said. The department had 262 vacancies as of June 30 but 182 officers are in training to fill those positions.

Donohue said his department is making its strongest recruiting push since the 1970s and has not compromised public safety.

"Despite the vacancies, we're doing the job; we're one of the safest cities when it comes to violent crimes," he said, adding that the department's 72 reserve officers may be called in to help with administrative duties.

Ma'afala said he hopes the department vacancies won't last long.

The issue of keeping experienced officers isn't new for the department, which for years has had to cope with Mainland law enforcement agencies recruiting Honolulu officers by offering higher pay. And it isn't limited to Honolulu. In June, the state's four police chiefs said they were collectively short more than 300 police officers and said that filling vacancies would only get worse without higher salaries and added benefits and bonuses.

HPD's flood of retirements this year can be traced back to its last heavy recruiting push in the 1970s, when then-Mayor Frank Fasi added 200 to 300 positions. At the time, Hawai'i also acquired federal money to help create new police department positions for military personnel coming back from the Vietnam War.

Now that the majority of that recruiting class has either reached 25 years of service or 55 years of age, many are wanting to retire.

Ma'afala, president of the State of Hawai'i Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO), said changes made to the state pension system during the recent legislative session has angered many officers.

"A lot of officers are planning to retire because they don't want it to affect their pension, and I don't blame them after putting in 25, 30 years of hard work," Ma'afala said. "I know a lot of officers who reached 25 years (of service) who want to continue another five years, but they feel the new law is forcing them out."

Employees' Retirement System administrator David Shimabukuro said that under the new law, effective Jan. 1, officers who retire after Dec. 31 will be paid once a month rather than twice. Current retirees will continue to receive pension payments on a semi-monthly basis.

The calculation of an officer's "high three" pension payment will also change, based on the person's three highest-paying calendar years or the last 36 months of his or her career, Shimabukuro said. Officers hired before 1971 will be able to choose the best-paying five calendar years or the last 60 months of a career.

Ma'afala said the existing pension plan allows an officer to take the three best-paying 12-consecutive month periods, and is not restricted from January to January. An average pension payment comes out to about 12.2 percent of a monthly salary, he said.

"Currently, you can select any 12-month period for the high three, say from April to April," he said. "An officer may have been promoted, or reassigned to a detail which required higher pay or overtime in that 12-month period. So transforming it to a calendar year basis will definitely lower his or her pension payment."

Shimabukuro said the state attorney general's office is studying another pension payment calculation that would allow an officer to use the best three or five 12-month periods in a career up to Dec. 31, 2002 — regardless of the 12-month period.

But Donohue admits some changes to the state retirement pension fund may prompt some officers to retire. "All of these reasons are why we are pushing even harder for new recruits," he said.

While the number of law enforcement candidates have increased since the Sept. 11 attacks, Donohue said it is even more difficult to attract qualified applicants because of new federal or private security jobs.

HPD has also had to compete with recruiting efforts by police departments from the Pacific Northwest. Honolulu police have lost 83 officers to other law enforcement agencies since 1998.

HPD officer pay has been an issue since the Mainland police recruiting drives began four years ago.

The starting pay for a Honolulu police officer is $33,408, while that of an officer in Federal Way, Wash., is $41,244 to $55,344 based on experience and educational background. While many Mainland police departments allow lateral pay transfers based on years of experience, HPD does not.

Even with Honolulu's latest recruiting class of 22 officers scheduled to graduate tonight, Donohue said the department is barely breaking even.

The department waived its one-year Hawai'i residential requirement for officer applicants, which has led to an increased number of candidates, Donohue said.

And though 3,977 people applied for the department's past four recruiting classes, Donohue said only 156 graduated as officers.

"About one-third of the applicants don't show up for the initial written exam, background checks weed out the ones that have criminal records, and some applicants simply decide this isn't the career they want to get into," he said. "But despite all this, we're not going to give up. We have to keep looking for potential applicants."

Donohue said the department now operates a career center in downtown Honolulu and the department is looking at bonuses for officers who earn high education degrees or pass physical-fitness or foreign-language tests.

The department is also considering tuition benefits for children of HPD employees, he said.

"I think there is a stereotype of what a police officer has to be," Donohue said. "We need applicants from all different fields and expertise to make us a well-rounded department."

But Ma'afala believes the bottom line is pay.

"The department is making its best sales pitch in attracting officer candidates, but it still comes down to pay and benefits," he said.

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-8110.