A city task force presented a report with recommendations on how to address the Honolulu Police Department’s chronic staffing shortage — and now it’s up to the Honolulu Police Commission to choose how to move forward.
The HPD Staffing and Retention Task Force recently published a report on HPD’s staffing issues. It found that there are 450 current officer vacancies, and that there has been a steady increase in vacancies every year since 2021. There’s also an ongoing shortage of civilian staff.
Retirement eligibility, pay and other benefits were all contributing factors that have made it difficult to recruit and retain staff.
Honolulu City Council Councilmember Andria Tupola led the task force, and on Wednesday presented the final report to the commission.
Because many of the recommendations require funding, Tupola said the commission should pick which of the recommendations it wants to prioritize.
“I'm not going get it all, but if I go to the council and I fight for one of these … we need to fight for the same ones, whatever they may be. And then maybe in the next fiscal budget, we'll fight for the next ones. … So what should we invest in immediately?” she said.
The task force’s recommendations include funding for health care and housing, along with retention and recruitment bonuses.
The most expensive of the recommendations includes the creation of a recruitment and retention special fund, which the report said would be funded using lapsed salary savings from vacancies. The fund would use $15 million to $30 million annually for efforts to improve staffing.
That would allow unspent funds allocated to HPD to stay in the department, rather than going back to the city’s general fund.
The task force also recommended a $500 monthly housing stipend to both uniformed and civilian positions — which would cost nearly $13 million a year.
Another suggestion was to have the city spend $7.7 million per year to increase the city’s share of employee medical premiums.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Tupola and the commissioners also discussed the possibility of expanding HPD’s child care support, three-day work weeks, and even planning on how to operate permanently with a smaller force.
