• Choosing a new police chief Choosing a new police chief Selection of a new police chief is a decision that should be carefully made, and one that is in line with the upcoming county budget. The tenure of Kaua‘i’s
• Choosing a new police chief
Choosing a new police chief
Selection of a new police chief is a decision that should be carefully made, and one that is in line with the upcoming county budget.
The tenure of Kaua‘i’s last police chief, George Freitas, was one marked by improvements and modernization within the Kaua‘i Police Department, as well as one that had its share of controversies and inter-departmental politics.
This year we have a clean slate before the Kaua‘i Police Commission, the agency that will play a leading role in the selection of a new police chief.
The field has been narrowed down to three candidates, with acting police chief K.C. Lum among the trio.
Councilman Mel Rapozo has raised a simple, yet intuitive, issue regarding the selection process. He wants the date of a final decision to be pushed back until new salaries for the office are in place.
If a new chief is named prior to having a fixed salary there could be questions over the hiring date and the implementation of the new salary. In addition, with a chief in place politics could again creep into the police department over the determining of the salary and its start date. Unlike a major urban area, selecting a police chief for an island community like Kaua‘i takes on a unique dynamic. We are a close-knit community, and many of our county employees have long-term relationships, but as family members, as co-workers and as members of the community who may have grown up together. In a big city all, or even most, of these factors wouldn’t be there. Kaua‘i’s police chief is also a figurehead for the community, and how they run their department will affect the island beyond the streets, jails and courts.
The selection of a candidate also should hinge on how a candidate would deal with any factions that may exist within the department. The one selected should be free of attachments to any of these factions and should be able to deal fairly with everyone within their department.
The candidate should also have no baggage in his or her background that may blow up into a political situation, whether within the department or within the community. All three of the candidates have strong local ties, which may have been a factor in their selection as the final candidates.
With the ongoing war on drugs underway on Kaua‘i, the enforcement experience of the candidates is another critical facet of this process. Are they tough on drug dealers? The one selected should be. Will they patrol our roads as well as possible on any given day, not during a program or end-of-the-month drive to give out more tickets? The candidate should be able to organize the department so it is effective in keeping our roads safe, even with the limited resources and manpower currently available. Does the candidate know how to work together with federal and state law enforcement agencies? The candidate should be able to create working partnerships that will provide Kaua‘i with federal benefits when available, and to use the national and international crime fighting information networks now available.
In addition, it is hoped that this selection process be free of bias or “old boy” type jockeying during the selection process.
At this time and place having an effective police chief for Kaua‘i is essential to meet the growing law enforcement demands of Kaua‘i.
