Construction set to relocate Honolulu Police Department’s central receiving desk

The central receiving desk at the Honolulu Police Department’s headquarters will close for construction until June, and starting Friday adults arrested will be processed in Kalihi and Kapolei, interim Chief Rade Vanic told the Honolulu Police Commission on Wednesday.

Beginning Friday, adults arrested in patrol Districts 1, 6 and 7, which cover the area from Hawaii Kai through Chinatown, will be booked at the Kalihi Police Station at 1865 Kamehameha IV Road. Those unable to post bail will be taken to the Kapolei Police Station at 1100 Kamokila Blvd., where they may be bailed out, according to police. All juveniles arrested in Districts 1, 6 and 7 will be booked at the Pearl City Police Station, 1100 Waimano Home Road.

The repair work will include new cell doors, sally port entrance and special access ramps, Vanic told commissioners.

Recruitment and retention was also discussed Wednesday as Vanic lauded the imminent graduation of HPD’s 200th recruit class. Eighteen metropolitan police recruits out of an initial class of 47 completed the training, prompting commissioners to question the attrition rate.

Police have said the rapidly shifting national and local conversation on the future of policing, rising costs of living and the intense scrutiny officers receive for the work they do in a community is hampering recruiting in Hawaii and across the country.

“A lot of them left for personal reasons … I’m trying to get an understanding of what those personal reasons are … This attrition is much higher than what we’ve seen in the past,” Vanic said. Changes to curriculum and other policies at HPD’s Ke Kula Makai training academy in Waipahu may have contributed to the attrition rate of the current class, he said.

Commissioner Richard Parry asked Vanic about a demand letter publicized Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and Honolulu attorney Mateo Caballero asking for $500,000 in damages and new state policies. The letter was sent to HPD and the state Department of Education after a 10-year-old Black girl living with disabilities alleged officers used “excessive force” to handcuff, arrest and interrogate her following a complaint from another parent about an offensive drawing in January 2020.

The girl’s mother, Tamara Taylor, alleged that at 8:42 a.m. on Jan. 10, 2020, another parent at her daughter’s school, Honowai Elementary, asked school administrators to call police after viewing a picture drawn by her daughter and others depicting another student who was allegedly bullying the 10-year-old.

Vanic told Parry and the commission that HPD is working with the city department of the Corporation Counsel to understand the demand letter.

“Once I do have an opportunity to talk to COR and look into it more deeply, I could possibly provide more information at a later meeting,” Vanic said.

Police also recently broke up three separate series of robberies, some that included a string of three to four offenses and one that involved a financial institution, in West Oahu and downtown Honolulu. In each case, the robberies stopped after police arrested a suspect, Vanic told commissioners.