MPD officers travel to Vegas to recruit for vacancies

Department faces shortage with 99 of 400 positions open as of Jan. 31

Two Maui Police Department officers are traveling to Las Vegas next week to recruit for officers at a college career fair and to attend a training on how to get recruits hired more quickly.

The recruiting training is at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which can get a recruit into its academy program 90 days after the person completes an application, said MPD Chief John Pelletier.

“So they’re going to give us a complete review of how they do that,” he said.

In comparison, it has taken about a year for police officer applicants to be hired at MPD.

“So think about how many people aren’t sticking around to get a job because they’re not going to wait a year, they can’t wait a year,” Pelletier said. “So why would we not try to go to 90 days if we can? I’m not sure that we can because of some of the difficulties.”

The Las Vegas training is free for MPD, except for travel expenses, said Maui police spokeswoman Alana Pico. While there, the officers will participate in a career fair Tuesday and Wednesday at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she said. The fair targets recruiting of students and alumni of UNLV, the College of Southern Nevada, Nevada State College and the University of Nevada, Reno.

Maui County spokesman Brian Perry said travel was approved for the two officers, who are on the new MPD recruitment council, to attend the fair with an estimated cost of $4,069. The travel dates are Monday to Thursday, he said.

“So it’s a training opportunity and a recruiting opportunity that I think any police agency would have jumped on,” said Pelletier, who was a captain at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department before he was selected to be MPD chief last year. “We just happen to be lucky enough.

“Why would you lose an opportunity like that, especially coming out of COVID when so many people are going to be trying to get jobs and especially careers? So I think it’s a phenomenal opportunity.”

However, some are questioning why MPD is recruiting for officers on the Mainland.

“What about the colleges over here?” said recently retired MPD Assistant Chief Clyde Holokai. “There’s nothing being done at UH, Chaminade. It’s just straight to Vegas.”

Pico said MPD had recent recruiting events at the Army National Guard and Army Reserve on Maui and has events scheduled on Lanai, Molokai and Maui this month and next.

“We’ve done two recruiting efforts here,” Pelletier said. “We’ve got applications from folks here. The desire is to first look at Maui County and then the state of Hawaii and then nationally. But we’re not going to be limited. We’re going to do everything we can to fill the hundred-officer shortage that we have. Because it’s so great, we’re going to be very creative and very aggressive with how we get those seats filled.”

As of Jan. 31, MPD had 99 vacancies among its 400 allotted positions for police officers.

Holokai said that officers from the Mainland usually stay three to five years at MPD.

“They don’t have the ties here,” he said. “They’re not used to the cost of living. They want to buy a house right away. They realize they’re in over their head. It’s very different.”

In 2010, when he worked in the MPD Plans and Training Section, he said the cost was about $91,000 to train an officer. Some officers were trained by MPD, then applied to other law enforcement agencies, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where officers are paid more.

Holokai questioned whether standards would be lowered by shortening the evaluation process for applicants before a decision is made on whether to offer them jobs.

“We cannot be dropping our standards,” he said. “We’ve seen what’s happened in the Mainland for departments that have done that.

“You fill the ranks quickly, but what are we filling it with? Officers that may not or should not be there.”

Pelletier said he is trying to create a “lateral academy” for police officers from other states who want to transfer to MPD. Such officers, who may have a few years of experience on the Mainland, would already have training in some police tactics.

“But if you came here, you would come here as an entrylevel officer, not as somebody of rank,” he said. “You would enter as an entry-level officer. It doesn’t exist right now, but we would make it that way.”

“We’re trying to build that program,” Pelletier said. “Because why would we not go after five- and six-year officers that don’t like the area that they live? We can offer them a career here. I think it’s a win for everybody.”