Commission confirms Pelletier as new police chief
Las Vegas police Capt. John Pelletier was officially approved by the Maui Police Commission Wednesday to be the next Maui County police chief, a month after he was chosen as the final candidate.
The 49-year-old captain will take the helm on Dec. 15, with his swearing-in on the same day.
Pelletier, a 22-year veteran of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, was selected on Oct. 5 as the final candidate to take the top seat from a list of five finalists. He was the only non-Maui resident of the finalists.
Commission members gave unanimous final approval of Pelletier at their virtual meeting on Wednesday after reviewing pre-employment requirements including background and drug tests, a psychological evaluation and credit report. The commission also waived a oneyear state residency requirement for the job, as Pelletier currently lives in Nevada.
“Maui Nui is not only looking to you for not only steadfast leadership but also compassion, buttressed by strength,” Commission Chairman Frank De Rego told Pelletier after the vote. “This will be your kuleana, your responsibility to our community, which is the relationship, the reciprocity, bounded by empathy and mutual respect. In the best of times your kuleana is in tall order, especially in current circumstances that many of our community including our own are experiencing throughout the United States.”
“There is no doubt this is a time of considerable challenges but also I believe a far-reaching opportunity,” De Rego added.
Pelletier said after the vote that “it is truly, truly, truly an incredible blessing. I am humbled, I am honored to have been given this kuleana, to be given this opportunity.”
“It is not lost on me what the commission did. It is not lost on me what the community did,” said Pelletier, who commended the efforts of the commission’s transparency and work during the selection process.
“You did something that showed exactly where every candidate was and allowed the public to say what they were looking for,” Pelletier said.
He added that he also wanted to let the department know of his support.
“There will be no bigger cheerleader, no bigger proponent for the work that they do, than me,” Pelletier said, noting how officers put their lives on the line every day.
He is also looking to improve equipment for police officers along with streamlining any redundancies in the department, which is facing an employment shortfall of around 20 percent. For example, Pelletier said he didn’t want an officer spending 45 minutes doing extra reports that the officer maybe doesn’t need to.
“We look to being as efficient as possible and I’ll make sure they are as successful as they can be,” he said, adding that his goal in moving forward is “lokahi.”
“Lokahi between the department and the community is where we are going to go,” Pelletier said. “We are in this together, we are in this as one. For one Maui County, one Hawaii, for all of us.”
De Rego told the commission that some of the priorities that Pelletier suggested that the commission ask the mayor to consider in the upcoming fiscal year 2023 budget include a full-time civil service recruiter and an assistant to help fill the staff vacancies, along with funds for a part-time cold case team, which could possibly include hiring former law enforcement officers to staff, as the department is shorthanded and cannot have such a squad.
Pelletier is also seeking to put together a K-9 program with six patrol dogs, with four on Maui and one each on Molokai and Lanai, De Rego said, explaining that Pelletier relayed that there is data supporting a reduction in police officer shootings if a K-9 program is engaged.
The commission voted to include Pelletier’s priorities in its letter to the mayor for upcoming budget considerations.
The commission will also make a request to the mayor for an executive officer/investigator for the police commission, along with a full-time commission secretary and separate commission office location.