LIHU’E — Kaua’i County Police officer Darla Abbatiello is known as a top cop locally, having been named the department’s Employee of 1999. Now, her work in community policing has caught the attention of national and state law enforcement agencies.
LIHU’E — Kaua’i County Police officer Darla Abbatiello is known as a top cop
locally, having been named the department’s Employee of 1999.
Now, her work
in community policing has caught the attention of national and state law
enforcement agencies.
Abbatiello, who’s been with the county police for 11
years, has been selected by the National Association of Police Organizations to
receive an honorable mention award at the seventh Annual Top Cops Awards,
scheduled for Aug. 5 at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C.
In addition,
she will receive a commendation from the Hawaii State Law Enforcement
Officials Association.
“We are extremely proud of Darla, and its great to
see her acknowledged in this way,” said police chief George Freitas.
The
national award recognizes law enforcement officers for outstanding service to
a community.
Abbatiello will be one of 61 officers nationwide to receive
the honorable mention award.
Freitas and Lt. Wilfred Ehu, who runs the
county’s Waimea police sub-station, to which Abbatiello is assigned, nominated
her for the national award based on Neighborhood Watch programs she set up
in Waimea and Kekaha this year.
The programs were created in response to
request for help from residents, who voiced fear about the threat of burglaries
in their neighborhoods. Abbatiello established one program in Kekaha in March
and one in Waimea in April.
She received help from Ehu, Sgt. Otis Ingram,
immediate supervisor at the Waimea sub-station, and Sgt. Paul Kanaho, who sets
up Neighborhood Watch projects throughout the island.
The programs gave
Waimea and Kekaha residents confidence they could help protect themselves and
their homes, Abbatiello said.
For the Waimea program, she got 100 adults
and youths to pass out flyers urging residents to attend a meeting in April on
crime awareness and prevention.
The canvassing, Abbatiello said, also sent
out a message to criminals: Stay away from West Kaua’i.
The program paid
off with immediate results. Within two weeks , burglaries became non-existent
in the neighborhoods, Abbatiello said. Plans are afoot to set up a second
program in Kekaha to drive down the risk of crime in that community, she
said.
Abbatiello practices a type of law enforcement that Freitas has
advocated since he took over the department more than four years ago –
community policing, Ehu said.
Freitas wants officers to understand
communities they patrol and develop a rapport with business people and
residents. Doing so will promote trust between the officers and the community,
resulting in lower crime, he said.
Abbatiello takes the time to get to know
residents and respond to their needs, Ehu said.
“She is more like
family,” Ehu said. “It is not uncommon to hear Darla calling an older person
auntie. She bonds with them.”
Abbatiello said “people know I will work
hard for them. If there is a crime, they know I am going to go to my fullest to
try to solve it. And if I can’t, they know I am going to my fullest to prevent
it from happening again.”
Because she is known as a fair-minded officer,
Abbatiello said her chances of diffusing potentially volatile situations –
family abuse, suicide, domestic argument or large, unruly crowds – is
higher.
“I will do what I’ve got to do , but I try to do it in the nicest
way possible, without judging anyone,” she said.
Police work, she said, is
not about “catching bad guys, necessarily. It’s to help people. That’s the
reason I like it.”
And not all criminals are “bad guys,” she reasoned.
Rather, suspects in criminal cases “are placed in situations in which they
made mistakes, ” she said.
Abbatiello works five days a week but puts in
time after work and on her days off to get the message to youths that crime
doesn’t pay.
She said youths will not pursue a life of crime if they
understand at an earlier age that crime is bad.
Abbatiello has made many
friends among West Kaua’i’s youth, Ehu said.
“It is amazing to see,” Ehu
said. “At a special function like the Waimea Town celebration or the Christmas
parade in Waimea, Darla is walking around and she is surrounded by kids. She’s
not passing out candy. She’s passing out aloha.”
At school, on duty and on
her own time, she talks to students about crime and what being a police officer
is all about.
Her contact with youths has helped her solve crimes. Earlier
this month, she worked on a burglary that occurred in Makaweli. Thanks to a
call from a youth, she cracked the case, resulting in the return of $4,000 in
stolen items to the owner and the arrest of the perpetrator.
Eleven years
ago, Abbatiello worked as part-time model and as a police dispatcher. She
became a full-time officer in 1994.
At one time, she aspired to be the
chief. It isn’t an immedite goal any more, Abbatiello said.
“I like patrol
work, and being a police officer is being out there,” she said.
Staff
writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or
lchang@pulitzer.net
