Overtime to fill in for retiring police officers
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
Some Honolulu police officers will be working overtime, and others may have to switch positions, because at least 86 officers chose to retire by the end of 2002.
Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue said he did not know how much more overtime would be required for officers filling in vacancies in the patrol division, or how many officers might have to be shuffled to the patrol unit.
"It's tough," Donohue said. "We hate to lose our experienced people and it's a concern for us. But we can't just give up, we have to keep trying and going after qualified recruits."
Tenari Ma'afala, president of the State of Hawai'i Organization of Police Officers, said overtime work for patrol officers was acceptable to a point.
"I'm sure the officers welcome the extra income, but you don't want it to continue where they burn themselves out, either," Ma'afala said. "Patrol officers are human, like everyone else, and some of them already work 12-hour shifts. You don't want it to start affecting their health and well-being."
The number of officers retiring last year was much higher than the annual average of 52 that stepped down between 1999 and 2001. The department loses an average of 150 officers each year through retirement and other forms of attrition, such as injuries or other job opportunities. There are currently 251 officer vacancies.
Tuesday was the deadline for officers to submit retirement papers if they wished to step down by the end of the year, said Maj. Dave Kajihiro of the Honolulu Police Department's Human Resources Division.
Donohue attributed the higher retirement number to police officers flocking to higher-paying federal positions with the Transportation Security Administration at the state airports. Changes to the Employees' Retirement System also led some officers to step down by Dec. 31 to prevent impact to their pension payment, he said.
Donohue and police union officials believe the only way to keep officers is to increase their pay. Ongoing negotiations over the collective bargaining agreement for the next police contract probably will determine what happens next, as the officers' four-year contract ends in June.
"What the officers will get paid in the upcoming bargaining agreement is going to determine whether we continue to see this type of departure of officers," Donohue said. "And if they keep making changes to the state ERS, we may have the same number of officers leaving each year."
Donohue said his main concern is public safety and assigning enough patrol officers to respond to emergencies. Officers working the patrol beats will be asked to work overtime if necessary to make up the staff shortage until 124 police recruits in training can help fill the ranks, he said.
Eleven new sergeants and four lieutenants will be promoted to the patrol division this month to make up for departing rank-and-file officers, he said.
Donohue has considered transferring staff from HPD's Juvenile Services Division to the patrol units, but will do so only as a last resort.
"If at all possible, we want to continue the current activities, such as DARE and PAL, because these are all long-term crime-prevention programs that make a difference with the kids," Donohue said. "We don't see the results right away, but they work."
Donohue said he wants his department to match the pay of officers in San Diego, which has similar demographics. Average pay for a Honolulu police officer is $45,852, compared with about $59,337 in San Diego. But that would mean increasing the payroll budget $33 million each year, he said.
Ma'afala said changes made to the state pension system in the last legislative session upset many officers and persuaded them to retire. "Many of them don't want to leave now, but they feel the changes to the ERS is forcing them to go," Ma'afala said.
Retaining experienced officers is not a new dilemma for the department, which has had to cope for years with Mainland law enforcement agencies hiring away Honolulu officers by offering higher pay.
HPD's flood of recent retirements can be traced to its last heavy recruiting push in the 1970s, when then-Mayor Frank Fasi added 200 to 300 positions. Now the majority of that recruiting class has either reached 25 years of service or 55 years of age, many want to retire.
High-ranking officers and longtime department veterans who have retired include deputy chief Robert Au, who took an administrator position with the federal Transportation Security Administration to oversee airport security on Maui; assistant chief Stephen Watarai, who plans to retire to become the state's new public safety director; Majs. Darryl Perry and William Gulledge; and 34-year veteran Officer Joe Self of HPD's Missing Persons Detail.
Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-8110.
Correction: At least 86 officers retired from the Honolulu Police Department by the end of 2002. Information in a previous version of this story was unclear because of an editor's error.
