‘Steady exodus’ of officers strains MPD
Maui union official is concerned about impacts to officers, community
Saying the shortage of Maui Police Department officers has become a crisis, the union representing officers is calling for leaders to act “with a sense of urgency” to fill about 100 vacant positions and retain experienced officers to prevent police service to the community from deteriorating.
“There has been a steady exodus of Maui police officers leaving the department through resignations, retirements and voluntary separations,” said MPD Sgt. Nick Krau, chapter chair of the Maui Chapter Board of Directors of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers. “The exodus has become so extreme that Maui Police Department is down 100 police officers from authorized or budgeted positions.”
At the same time, he said Maui County’s population has increased by 31 percent since 2001 to nearly165,000 in 2020, according to U.S. Census data.
At the end of last year, MPD employed 299 officers and had 101 of its 400 authorized positions unfilled for a vacancy rate of about 25 percent.
The shortage includes 54 percent fewer detectives, with 13 of 28 budgeted positions filled, Krau said.
“This is the lowest level of police staffing in my 21-year career,” he said. “Without bold action now, our members will be forced to continue to work up to 60 hours per week, service levels will deteriorate, and investigations will take more time.”
MPD reported that 21 officers resigned and 13 retired last year, while the department hired 11 officers, for a net loss of 23 officers in 2021. The officers who retired had a combined total of 363 years of service with MPD, police business administrator Melissa Magonigle said at a Police Commission meeting last month.
Eight officers retired in December, including acting Chief Dean Rickard, who had more than 34 years of service, and Assistant Chiefs John Jakubczak and Victor Ramos. Jakubczak, who had over 34 years of service, and Ramos, who had over 33 years of service, had been finalists for the job of police chief.
“The loss of experienced officers, whether to retirement, early retirement or resignation, hurts our entire community,” Krau said. “Those officers have years of community relationships they’ve established that we all rely upon. They have the ability to mentor, train and inspire our new officers and we’re watching them walk out the door at an alarming rate. This needs to stop immediately.”
While the Honolulu Police Department is also struggling with a shortage of officers, Kauai and Hawaii County police departments have smaller percentages of officer vacancies.
On Kauai, 25 of 163 budgeted positions for officers are unfilled for a 15 percent vacancy rate, according to SHOPO. The union reported
Hawaii County has 35 of its 470 officer positions unfilled for a 7 percent vacancy rate.
Speaking at a Jan. 4 meeting of the Maui County Council Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee, Police Chief John Pelletier said MPD had fewer than 300 officers for the first time.
“The best way I can explain it is cut off one quarter of your body and be asked to perform at the same standard,” he said. “That’s like taking a sprinter and saying, ‘Hey, go run this race but we’re going to take your leg.’ ”
Pelletier told the committee MPD didn’t have the manpower to issue citations under the county social host ordinance that holds adult hosts accountable for underage drinking at residences. “For us to increase the Police Department’s role right now is a grave mistake,” he said. “There’s other units or other areas of responsibility for this.”
Maui police spokeswoman Alana Pico said by email Thursday that the shortage “is affecting how we prioritize calls for service.”
An administrative order issued Jan. 18 by Pelletier said Wailuku, Lahaina and Kihei officers wouldn’t be assigned to respond to miscellaneous accidents, including bicycle accidents not involving motor vehicles, water accidents, falls, general injuries and major burns.
“Currently, our personnel are working harder and longer hours, so we are temporarily shifting personnel from specialized units to patrol to maintain the health and well-being of our personnel,” Pico said.
Krau said the union is worried about the negative effects of the officer shortage.
“We are concerned that the existing staffing crisis will result in longer response times to emergencies,” he said. “It has meant the MPD no longer responds to certain calls for service such as ‘miscellaneous accidents’ in our Wailuku, Kihei and Lahaina patrol districts.
“Our officers could potentially end up waiting longer for backup during dangerous incidents, which puts the safety of our officers and the public at greater risk.”
In addition, he said officers’ personal lives are affected.
“The staffing crisis is taking a huge personal toll on our officers,” Krau said. “Some patrol officers have been working a mandatory 60 hours every week. They have been forced to work longer hours and have fewer days off. This puts a strain on their families, it has negative long-term impacts on their health and studies have validated that sleep deprivation has the same effect as drinking too much alcohol. This is not a sustainable police staffing model that protects our community.”
He said Wailuku patrol officers have been working mandatory 60-hour work weeks for
over a year.
“These shortages are resulting in employees being overworked to the point of exhaustion and this is dangerous for our residents and detrimental to the health and safety of our officers,” Krau said.
In 2021, there were only 19 police recruits and only nine successfully completed their training, Krau said. “The level of attrition far outnumbers incoming academy graduates,” he said.
Pico said the department has “created a new recruitment strategy” and plans to have “recruitment days” when applicants interested in sworn and civilian jobs can apply and attend question-and-answer sessions with current police employees.
“Eventually, in the future, we plan to hold recruitment workshops for applicants to go over the hiring process, such as the written exam, physical agility, interview, etc.,” she said in her email. “We are currently looking at various options to retain personnel and ways to reduce redundancy and improve efficiency.”
Krau said “being a police officer is a very difficult profession and it’s not for everyone.”
“So the question to recruitment
is how do we find these individuals,” he said.
“There are many reasons why our staffing shortage has gotten to this critically low level and there is no one person to blame for it,” Krau said. “We need to create a better working environment and better working conditions for our officers.
“Requiring officers to drive police vehicles that are over 10 years old and are sometimes not reliable is not sending a positive message. We have been working without a contract for seven months now, with our union doing its best to get our officers the pay and benefits that will help keep them here while attracting qualified applicants. For the last 20 years, they have been taking retirement benefits away from our profession, making a career with MPD much less attractive.”
Krau said “the staffing crisis must be addressed with a sense of urgency.”
“Our community wants and deserves a highly trained, fullstaffed professional police department,” he said. “Incentives must be provided to retain our experienced officers. Period. If we lose more officers, it will be impossible to hire enough new officers to replace those who leave, let alone make up the
100 officers we are down.”
He said 25 “highly experienced” police officers are eligible to retire by the end of this year.
“We absolutely cannot afford to lose another officer,” Krau said. “We are losing officers to other professions, to other law enforcement agencies on the Mainland and because of burnout.
“The professional development of our officers is also affected by these critical staffing shortages. A police department can’t hold trainings if you’re so short staffed. The Department cannot safely pull people off of their assignments and send them to various trainings and professional development courses. This all has a negative impact on the development, morale and retention of our officers.”
Krau noted that the Maui Fire Department has only a few vacancies “because they do an excellent job of retaining their firefighters.”
After 16 firefighters retired in December, the Maui Fire Department has 14 firefighter vacancies.
‘The staffing crisis is taking a huge personal toll on our officers. Some patrol officers have been working a mandatory 60 hours every week.’
– Nick Krau, MPD Sergeant