Our community has called for more officers on patrol, and the Honolulu Police Department is committed to answering that call. At the same time, HPD continues to face a significant overtime budget deficit, requiring us to make difficult decisions about how we allocate our resources to address both issues. HPD made the tough call to return officers from non-patrol elements back to the road. This move will be instrumental in ensuring we have enough officers for improved response times, and more importantly, to increase officer safety.

In the last few days, while evaluating the priority of our programs, HPD has heard from the community, and we agree on the importance of our youth programs. As a result, we managed to keep the Police Activities League (PAL) in place, as well as the Junior Police Officer (JPO) program with no changes. We will continue to maintain the Police Services Officer program (formerly known as the Cadet program), and the Law Enforcement Explorers program, in addition to the School Resource Officer program.

Unfortunately, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program will be put on hold once the current session graduates.

HPD recognizes the importance of these programs and what they mean to the families, students, and communities we serve. We value the relationships we’ve built through these programs and have worked hard to find ways to preserve both PAL and JPO.

HPD will take a phased approach to returning personnel to patrol. As of October 18, 54 officers from Fourth Watch have been reassigned to patrol. Additional personnel will return throughout November as we work toward meeting our staffing goals.

These officers will come from our Community Affairs, Human Resources, Information Technology, Major Events, Records and Identification, and Training Divisions, as well as the Chief’s Office, Criminal Intelligence Unit, Fourth Watch, and District Misdemeanor Follow-Up Details.

We’d like to reassure the public that even with this staff movement, we will still be able to maintain our administrative and investigative services.

These are not decisions HPD has made lightly. To the officers who will be reassigned, we recognize the sacrifices this means for you and your families. We are incredibly grateful for your understanding, your professionalism, and your continued willingness to put on the uniform each day to serve our community.