Police news is one of the hottest topics in Hawaiʻi these days, from major shakeups in the Honolulu department to the struggle to fills hundreds of jobs statewide to the search for new police chiefs in three counties at the same time.
That’s why we asked officials with the State of Hawaiʻi Organization of Police Officers to spend some time with our reporters and editors this week for an in-depth discussion on the many things SHOPO is concerned about.
We weren’t disappointed. In a wide-ranging session that lasted more than 90 minutes, three SHOPO leaders — Sgt. Jonathan Frye, Cpl. Nicholas Schlapak and Dustin DeRollo, a SHOPO consultant — spoke frankly and passionately about how the issues making daily headlines are affecting their members, the ability to do their jobs and their lives. More importantly, SHOPO has clearly put a lot of thought into how to at least begin to solve some of the problems playing out statewide but especially in Honolulu, the state’s largest police agency…