Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / HPD Interim Chief of Police Rade Vanic on illegal fireworks as we approach New Year's Eve

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HPD Interim Chief of Police Rade Vanic on illegal fireworks as we approach New Year's Eve · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:15
  Welcome to the One Oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and we're joined this week
• 0:19
  by Honolulu Police Department Interim Chief Rade Vanic.
• 0:22
  Chief, thanks so much for making some time for me.
• 0:24
  Yeah, not a problem. Glad to be here.
• 0:26
  You know, before we get into the topics and kind of dive into this,
• 0:28
  this is our first time sitting down with you.
• 0:30
  So tell us a little bit about you.
• 0:32
  Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?
• 0:34
  Why did you join the department?
• 0:35
  Yeah. You know, I grew up in Waikiki.
• 0:38
  I know that's, interesting.
• 0:40
  Interesting for a local boy.
• 0:41
  Yeah. You know, born and raised.
• 0:44
  Growing up in Waikiki was interesting.
• 0:45
  You know, I didn't have a backyard or anything.
• 0:47
  I played some interesting games growing up.
• 0:49
  So one of the games I used to play as I grew up on the 20th floor,
• 0:52
  one of the games I used to play with my mom, I go out on the land I and and,
• 0:57
  I took a direction on Kuhio Avenue and you'd pick a different direction
• 1:00
  and we choose a color of car and then, okay, whoever got the first of 20 of those
• 1:04
  I picked,
• 1:05
  like a white car is going towards diamond and you'd pick red cars coming towards
• 1:09
  going towards EV. Yeah.
• 1:10
  And if whoever reached 21st was the winner,
• 1:12
  I mean, these are the types of things I did to pass the time.
• 1:15
  So you can imagine my childhood was interesting,
• 1:18
  but, you know, I went to come in their schools.
• 1:20
  I went to U-H for college.
• 1:23
  I married my high school sweetheart.
• 1:26
  You know, I joined the department.
• 1:27
  I got my degree in architecture, of all things.
• 1:30
  Okay, so people asking me, hey, you got your degree in architecture.
• 1:33
  Why did you become a police officer? Right.
• 1:35
  It's pretty interesting.
• 1:36
  You know, while I was in architecture school, my wife was my high school
• 1:40
  sweetheart, and her dad is a retired lieutenant, my brother in law.
• 1:44
  So her brother, he's still a, lieutenant now in the department.
• 1:48
  My best friend
• 1:49
  who was going to college with me in the School of Architecture over at U-H.
• 1:53
  His dad is a retired, officer.
• 1:55
  So really, he told me.
• 1:57
  He told me one day, hey, let's go take the test.
• 1:59
  And kind of that's that's 26 years later.
• 2:01
  I mean, I'm still in the department. Really?
• 2:03
  That's how I got into the department.
• 2:04
  But, you know, 26 years later, I'm glad I did it.
• 2:08
  No regrets. I love this job.
• 2:10
  It's the best job in the world.
• 2:11
  So that's kind of me in a nutshell.
• 2:13
  Yeah, well, chief, we thought it'd be a good time
• 2:14
  to sit down with you, because New Year's Eve is just a few weeks away.
• 2:18
  We're also approaching the anniversary of that tragic event.
• 2:20
  An earlier model for you.
• 2:22
  You know, mentally, tactically.
• 2:24
  Where are you as we approach New Year's Eve?
• 2:26
  Yeah.
• 2:27
  You know, so on New Year's Eve is a time of year where, you know,
• 2:32
  people, they like to take some time to spend time with family.
• 2:35
  You know, some people, they're wrapping things up, you know,
• 2:38
  rushing, rushing around, trying to get that last minute gift for other people.
• 2:42
  It's slowing down, you know, winding down to the new year.
• 2:45
  They want to celebrate, but you know, I want to remind people of the tragedy
• 2:50
  that happened last year.
• 2:51
  I of them new, you know,
• 2:52
  and one of the things that happened over there with all of the fireworks,
• 2:56
  that's something that this year and I know people are going to be doing fireworks.
• 3:00
  But, one thing I want to remind people is that fireworks,
• 3:04
  even though it's fun to look at and people think
• 3:07
  it's a cultural thing, it's not, you know, it's illegal.
• 3:11
  And I want to remind people that it's illegal.
• 3:13
  The tragedy that happened earlier morning last year that was completely avoidable.
• 3:17
  We want to make sure that doesn't happen again this year.
• 3:20
  HPD is committed to making sure that, you know, that type of activity
• 3:24
  doesn't happen.
• 3:25
  So us in partnership with the Department of Law Enforcement,
• 3:28
  we're going to be out there this year. We're going to be enforcing.
• 3:31
  And, you know, we're not naive.
• 3:32
  We know that people are still going to be doing it, but we're going to do our best.
• 3:36
  We're going to make sure that we're doing our part,
• 3:38
  but we're asking people out there to to make sure that they're doing their part.
• 3:42
  Yeah, understand that this is illegal.
• 3:44
  Make sure they're not
• 3:45
  participating in illegal activity and just change your behavior.
• 3:50
  Celebrate. Let's celebrate responsibly.
• 3:52
  Don't do fireworks.
• 3:53
  Yeah, yeah.
• 3:54
  And when you do kind of
• 3:55
  make that call to action, I know it's super hard to influence behavior,
• 3:59
  but what is the law when it comes to reporting fireworks?
• 4:03
  Because, you know, before I was like, well,
• 4:03
  I got to catch them on video or the cops got to see them.
• 4:06
  Sure is the law.
• 4:07
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:07
  So, you know,
• 4:08
  earlier this year, governor Josh green signed some new laws into effect.
• 4:12
  And, you know, I got some notes here.
• 4:13
  I want to make sure that I'm going to, just refer to my notes really quickly.
• 4:17
  So what the law did was, there's four key points.
• 4:21
  First, it created stricter penalties.
• 4:23
  Okay.
• 4:24
  So the penalties and consequences for possession
• 4:28
  and purchase, have been elevated across the board, first of all.
• 4:32
  So if someone sets off aerials within 500ft of a dwelling,
• 4:38
  for example, house, a house or hotel, that now becomes a crime
• 4:42
  that is subject to up to one year in prison or a $2,000 fine.
• 4:46
  Also, in some cases, for violations
• 4:49
  of that nature, they're elevated to a felony charge.
• 4:53
  So for like a repeat offender, if they do it within a ten year period,
• 4:57
  that's a class C felony.
• 4:59
  If they use illegal fireworks and it causes
• 5:02
  substantial bodily harm, that's a class B felony.
• 5:05
  And if they use illegal fireworks and it causes
• 5:08
  serious bodily injury or death, that's a class A felony.
• 5:11
  That's a serious charge.
• 5:12
  You can go to jail for 20 years.
• 5:14
  The second thing that the law did
• 5:16
  was it increased accountability for everybody involved.
• 5:20
  So it's not just the person who lights it.
• 5:22
  So in other words, if a parent lets their child
• 5:25
  use fireworks, the parent can be held responsible.
• 5:28
  If you're a homeowner and people are lighting fireworks in their at your house,
• 5:33
  or a homeowner who lets a tenant light a firework, they can be held responsible.
• 5:38
  So it's no longer about just the person who lights diffuse.
• 5:41
  It's also about if you enable it, you can be held responsible.
• 5:46
  Third, fireworks can now be a suitable offense.
• 5:50
  So just like all, if you run a red light, an officer can issue a citation
• 5:55
  and there's like a monetary or a fine, a monetary assessment.
• 5:58
  Officers can do that.
• 5:59
  And also before officers would have to they could give you a citation.
• 6:04
  They'd arrest you. We can still arrest now.
• 6:05
  You can still be arrested for a firing off of fireworks, aerials.
• 6:10
  But now we can issue a citation, and you would have to pay a fine before
• 6:14
  you'd have to go to court.
• 6:15
  You know, there's a lot of processing delays and,
• 6:18
  you know, a lot of resources that go into that.
• 6:21
  Now, it's as simple as an officer giving you a citation.
• 6:23
  So at the end, it's not worth the risk.
• 6:26
  You can actually be caught and cited and fined immediately.
• 6:29
  So you know, just don't do it.
• 6:31
  And then finally, the law allows law enforcement to do is use drones.
• 6:36
  So drones can now be used over public areas to monitor these situations.
• 6:41
  So, you know, if you're contemplating using illegal fireworks and you think
• 6:45
  that you're hidden, don't assume, because one of the challenges we had was
• 6:49
  we had to be able to see someone like to be able to see someone do it.
• 6:53
  So it's difficult sometimes.
• 6:54
  But now we can use technology to our advantage
• 6:58
  to actually gain a vantage point and see these individuals doing it.
• 7:02
  We can use technology to our advantage.
• 7:03
  So now we can issue citations that we can make arrests.
• 7:06
  And then so like I said, I don't think that we can't see you doing these things.
• 7:10
  And here in Hawaii it's so hard.
• 7:11
  Yeah.
• 7:11
  It's a you don't want to snitch on your,
• 7:13
  on your neighbor or your friends, your family.
• 7:15
  But what's the best way to go about not just helping you,
• 7:18
  but really keeping your neighbors, your ohana, everybody around you safe?
• 7:22
  That's right.
• 7:23
  So very first thing, obviously, like I said before, don't do it at all.
• 7:27
  The aerial, no matter what, aerials are not legal.
• 7:30
  But you can if you want to.
• 7:31
  Do you know the red paper, firecrackers and stuff like that.
• 7:34
  That's still legal and you need a permit.
• 7:36
  So you can go online.
• 7:38
  If you go to each of these website, they have a permitting process.
• 7:41
  But if it's $25 per permit, you can get up to 5000.
• 7:46
  Firecrackers.
• 7:48
  If you do purchase the firecrackers and then you will pick it up the permit,
• 7:52
  you can legally pop firecrackers, I believe is between nine.
• 7:59
  Sorry.
• 7:59
  Just let me refer real fast is between on December 31st
• 8:02
  to January 1st, between 9 p.m.
• 8:06
  to 1 a.m.. You can legally with the permit.
• 8:09
  You can pop firecrackers.
• 8:12
  There are some novelties that don't require,
• 8:15
  permit that you can, but other than that, everything is illegal.
• 8:19
  So if you want to report it, you can.
• 8:22
  But one of the challenges that we've had is so someone hear something, right?
• 8:26
  So let's say
• 8:27
  you're sitting in your living room and you hear something,
• 8:29
  oh, I got a report that they do, but they don't want to meet
• 8:32
  with the police officer
• 8:34
  or they know it's their neighbor,
• 8:35
  but they don't want to meet with a police officer.
• 8:37
  It's really difficult when an officer gets a call like that through 911
• 8:41
  on what they can do, because remember, the officer got to see it.
• 8:45
  They got to be able to know who lit it so that they can take action.
• 8:48
  So if someone calls 911 and they don't want to meet with the officer
• 8:53
  or they do it anonymously, there's really not that much an officer can do.
• 8:56
  So if you call 911, at least be willing to meet with officer
• 9:01
  so you can tell the officer where you saw it.
• 9:04
  Even better.
• 9:05
  Yeah.
• 9:06
  Who did it, at least where it came from.
• 9:08
  So that way the officer has a little bit more to go on. Yeah.
• 9:11
  And does it help if you're able to I mean, sometimes we're able to get video.
• 9:15
  Very much.
• 9:16
  Doing so.
• 9:17
  Yeah.
• 9:17
  So if you can get video the officer can definitely use that.
• 9:21
  So for prosecution wise or to issue a citation,
• 9:24
  what the officer needs is remember again the officer needs to be able to articulate
• 9:28
  in their report or on their citation or if it does go to court, right.
• 9:32
  If the person wants to contest in court, you as the individual
• 9:35
  who has a video and is willing to turn in the video,
• 9:38
  you need to be willing to go testify in court.
• 9:41
  Now that you saw the individual who lit the firework.
• 9:45
  All right, you need to be able to say yes, that's the person.
• 9:49
  That person is.
• 9:50
  Yes, my neighbor, that person is John Doe or whatever the person's name is.
• 9:55
  And again, you need to be able to give that information to the officer.
• 9:59
  Give the video. Yes.
• 10:00
  I'm the person who took the video.
• 10:02
  I'm willing to go to court.
• 10:04
  All of that information is needed.
• 10:05
  And I know, you know, sometimes people that that's what makes it hard.
• 10:09
  Yeah, they don't want to stitch on their neighbor.
• 10:11
  But you know, again, in this day and age, I think with the tragedy that happened
• 10:15
  earlier, money, you know,
• 10:16
  I hate to keep on going back to that, but this is real, folks.
• 10:20
  This actually happened.
• 10:22
  There were people who lost their lives.
• 10:24
  There were children that seriously, seriously hurt.
• 10:27
  I mean, badly burned.
• 10:29
  This is going to affect them for the rest of their lives.
• 10:32
  This is stuff that we as a community, we really need to take this seriously.
• 10:37
  We can prevent this.
• 10:38
  So this is a this is really a call to action, asking people
• 10:43
  to do your part so that you can prevent this from happening.
• 10:46
  And say somebody has purchased in the past or even purchased recently.
• 10:50
  Really, it doesn't matter.
• 10:51
  But what are some safe ways to dispose of those fireworks?
• 10:55
  You have aerials from maybe years past. Yeah.
• 10:57
  And even that even storage is dangerous.
• 10:59
  Yes. Yeah.
• 11:00
  Thank you for that question.
• 11:01
  You know, there are some people a you know what?
• 11:04
  I was going to pop this, but in light of what happened last year, you know what?
• 11:07
  I'm going to do my part.
• 11:08
  I'm not going to pop it. I'm not going to set it off.
• 11:11
  I realize it's illegal. I just want to get rid of it.
• 11:14
  So there's a lot of people out there.
• 11:15
  And for those of you who are thinking that, thank you very much.
• 11:19
  So the worst thing you can do is a lot of people think, and you know what?
• 11:22
  I'm going to make it inert or I'm going to try and disable it.
• 11:25
  I'm going to douse it in water. Don't do that.
• 11:27
  That's the worst thing you can do, actually, because it makes it unstable.
• 11:31
  So what you should do, though, is call us.
• 11:34
  You can call. So call 911.
• 11:36
  I mean, I know that
• 11:37
  seems like you're bothering us, but really, if you need to call 911,
• 11:40
  don't bring it to our stations, please.
• 11:43
  We've had people bring in,
• 11:45
  like pipe bombs or what they thought was inactive grenades.
• 11:49
  Yeah. That's.
• 11:50
  You don't want to do that.
• 11:51
  You definitely don't want to transport it in your car.
• 11:53
  Don't bring it to our stations.
• 11:55
  You know I'm leaving.
• 11:56
  It's in its original packaging.
• 11:59
  That's probably the safest bet.
• 12:01
  Call us. We'll come out.
• 12:02
  Or you can call, the Department of Law Enforcement.
• 12:05
  Also, you can go online to the Department of Law Enforcement.
• 12:08
  They have different resources.
• 12:09
  You can report it there.
• 12:11
  But call us.
• 12:12
  We'll come out.
• 12:13
  We'll send an officer will assess the situation.
• 12:15
  If it's a large amount of fireworks, we'll probably have to call it
• 12:18
  a specialized unit like our specialized services division
• 12:21
  to help us assess or maybe make it safe, but usually an officer
• 12:25
  will be able to take that, take all of the fireworks and whatnot.
• 12:29
  We'll bring it safely to an area, and then we'll be able to dispose of it safely.
• 12:34
  And that's it.
• 12:35
  I mean, it's almost like amnesty, like they're okay if they call and say,
• 12:37
  hey, listen, I just want these off my hands.
• 12:39
  You know, most of the time we'll probably initiate the case.
• 12:42
  We'll take the information from the individual who's, giving it to us.
• 12:46
  You know, I, I'm going to go out and say that, you know,
• 12:50
  I'm pretty sure we're not going to be making cases against the individual,
• 12:53
  but we're going to have to document the fact that we're recovering it.
• 12:56
  But you know what, really, our focus is getting it off the street,
• 13:00
  making sure that is not being used during the holiday season,
• 13:04
  making sure that illegal consumer grade fireworks
• 13:08
  that could cause injury or possibly even death to individuals are not there.
• 13:12
  Yeah.
• 13:13
  So, you know, don't worry about us making criminal cases against people
• 13:16
  and prosecuting you or anything.
• 13:18
  Just turn that stuff in so we can get it out of the public.
• 13:21
  Yeah.
• 13:21
  And can you explain to our listeners what lights of Aloha is?
• 13:25
  Yeah, sure.
• 13:26
  So like civil law, it's a campaign that we have during this holiday season.
• 13:30
  It's focused on two areas service and safety.
• 13:33
  So you know, really our focus as a department
• 13:37
  is really that's our primary goal is safety.
• 13:40
  So during this holiday season, you know, we have things
• 13:44
  like canned goods, donations and we have, blood drives.
• 13:48
  And then but we also have the, enforcement portion,
• 13:51
  you know, we have a higher number this year.
• 13:53
  I think you've heard me go on the news and you've heard me talk about
• 13:57
  in different, venues about, the fatalities that have been happening on the road.
• 14:03
  So we want to bring awareness to those types of things.
• 14:06
  We want people as they go to the different holiday parties
• 14:10
  and get togethers with their families to make sure that they're celebrating
• 14:14
  responsibly, that, they're partying safely.
• 14:18
  But we also want to celebrate the holiday season and all of a mood
• 14:21
  of giving and stuff like that.
• 14:23
  So come to our website, look at our social media, check out
• 14:26
  all the things that our department that our officers are doing.
• 14:29
  One of the things that you'll probably see and if you want to participate in
• 14:33
  are actually
• 14:33
  look at what our officers are participating in, is, is this thing called
• 14:37
  heroes and helpers?
• 14:38
  People probably not before us shop with a cop.
• 14:41
  Yeah, well, that's something that we're, routinely participating in.
• 14:44
  And so, yeah, that's something that,
• 14:45
  you know, we want to celebrate during this holiday season.
• 14:48
  And, you know, chief, this podcast, is it meant to be comparative.
• 14:51
  Right. But you already mentioned you're in the news.
• 14:54
  You know, you have officers out in the community very high touch.
• 14:57
  Not to say that that's a change from the past,
• 14:59
  but there is somewhat of a shift that folks can feel for you.
• 15:03
  Do you have any mentors, like where is this coming from?
• 15:05
  Do you have any leaders that you try to mimic?
• 15:07
  What where does that come from? Yeah. You know,
• 15:11
  I don't know
• 15:11
  if this is going to sound corny or anything, but go for it.
• 15:14
  You know, I kind of I kind of see what the mayor is doing.
• 15:18
  Okay. Yeah, that sounds corny, but go ahead.
• 15:20
  No, really.
• 15:21
  I mean, he comes from, he comes from a media background.
• 15:25
  And, you know, we go to his,
• 15:27
  cabinet meeting all the time. And,
• 15:31
  he said this one thing at one of his upcoming
• 15:33
  meetings, he says, you know, I'll try to get better.
• 15:36
  And I see how I see how he really cares about the work
• 15:40
  and about keeping the community informed.
• 15:43
  Everything that he does is about making things better for the community.
• 15:47
  And I realized that making myself available,
• 15:51
  providing information to the community, that's a really important part.
• 15:54
  Yeah.
• 15:55
  So to me, when the community is well informed
• 16:00
  about what its department is doing, that really helps to build trust.
• 16:04
  And when the community trust the department that is there
• 16:08
  to provide services and keeps it safe,
• 16:12
  then it's easier for our officers to do their job.
• 16:16
  And when it's easier for our officers to do their job than our officers
• 16:20
  enjoy their job more.
• 16:21
  So for me, that's kind of the reason why we do it.
• 16:24
  And yeah, that's kind of who inspired me to do this kind of stuff.
• 16:27
  But do you have any mentors who helped you kind of get to this position
• 16:31
  that you're in today?
• 16:32
  I've kind of always been into the service.
• 16:35
  You know, before I got into the police department, I worked for,
• 16:40
  I worked in an ice cream shop serving ice cream, scooping ice cream.
• 16:43
  I worked for Haagen-Dazs.
• 16:44
  Okay.
• 16:45
  I think customer service kind of has always been in my blood.
• 16:48
  Even my mom, she worked for, the state Department of Human Services.
• 16:53
  So she worked for a government agency helping others.
• 16:57
  My dad too. He was, by by trade.
• 16:59
  He was a shoemaker.
• 17:01
  So I think in kind of in my family,
• 17:04
  they have service in their blood.
• 17:06
  My dad, too, in my wife's family, she,
• 17:11
  her dad was again retired police officer.
• 17:14
  My wife is a teacher.
• 17:16
  I don't know, I think it's just kind of,
• 17:18
  Maybe it's maybe it's the local culture
• 17:21
  where, in the Hawaiian culture.
• 17:24
  Because I'm. I'm proud to say that I'm a Hawaiian.
• 17:27
  We like to help others.
• 17:28
  I think that's kind of the aloha spirit.
• 17:30
  I really do, associate myself with.
• 17:34
  And I'm very in touch with my Hawaiian background.
• 17:39
  And to me, it's about helping others.
• 17:40
  It's about that a lot of spirit.
• 17:42
  I know, a lot of people, they talk about aloha and what aloha is.
• 17:47
  Aloha really is about, helping others.
• 17:51
  To me, that's that's what it is. Yeah.
• 17:53
  And, to me, to be a police officer, that truly is.
• 17:57
  That's living aloha.
• 17:58
  Because there's not too many other professions out there
• 18:02
  where you can really make a difference in someone's life for the positive.
• 18:07
  And like I said, when we first started this podcast,
• 18:10
  you know, 26 years of being a police officer and I have no regrets,
• 18:14
  I, I like to say that I love every single minute of it.
• 18:17
  But, you know, being a police officer is a tough job.
• 18:20
  But I look back on my career and, yeah, I, I've enjoyed it.
• 18:24
  You know, I can remember certain parts of my career that,
• 18:29
  really stand out.
• 18:31
  You know, there are some times where I know for a fact that I made
• 18:34
  a difference in a lot of people's lives and that, that makes me happy.
• 18:39
  That makes me proud to be able to see that I was able to do that.
• 18:42
  Yeah, I understanding concepts, you know, leading with aloha.
• 18:45
  But I know that that's not always easy.
• 18:47
  So for you, what's been the toughest part so far about this leadership position.
• 18:51
  Because you were you were chief your energy.
• 18:53
  Yeah. Previously as well.
• 18:55
  What's been the hardest part.
• 18:57
  Oh you know, right now I think for our department,
• 19:02
  you hear a lot about how many officers where,
• 19:06
  our staffing challenges for our department as a whole.
• 19:09
  Staffing challenges are tough, because I just remember
• 19:12
  when I was on the road coming into a squad room, you know,
• 19:16
  when the squad room was full and you see how many, how many partners you have
• 19:20
  and you know that, you have a lot of officers out there to support you.
• 19:24
  That was a good feeling.
• 19:25
  Then when you
• 19:26
  when you come into a squad room and you see like a minimal number
• 19:29
  of officers, well, it was a tough feeling because,
• 19:31
  you know, you're going to work hard that day. Yeah.
• 19:34
  You know, that is something big were to happen
• 19:37
  that's that many less officers that you have to rely on.
• 19:40
  You know, if they got busy while you're going to like,
• 19:43
  like I said, you're going to work really hard.
• 19:45
  And sometimes when you do that day after day that that can be hard.
• 19:48
  And it's not only for officers, it's our civilians too. Yeah.
• 19:51
  For like our dispatchers.
• 19:53
  So I think for me, for our, officers
• 19:56
  on, on the road, like I said, this is a tough job and you couple that
• 20:00
  with sometimes, you know, we have, here here in Honolulu.
• 20:04
  We have or to me, I think we have a really supportive community.
• 20:09
  I cannot even imagine, begin to imagine,
• 20:11
  like on the continent, they have a lot of different issues.
• 20:14
  And sometimes maybe their community is not as supportive.
• 20:18
  We have some of that going on here too.
• 20:20
  So like when an officer goes on on the road and people judge them
• 20:24
  just because of the uniform that they wear, that's tough.
• 20:27
  So to imagine when you couple that
• 20:30
  with just not having the staffing levels
• 20:33
  that we should and you put all of that together, that's got to be tough.
• 20:36
  So for me as a chief, to know that that's going on out there
• 20:41
  and kind of that burden on my shoulders
• 20:44
  to be like, okay, well, chief, what are you doing about that?
• 20:47
  That's tough.
• 20:49
  But, you know, I'm I'm super fortunate that
• 20:52
  the people that I have, helping me.
• 20:54
  So the deputy chief's, the assistant chief, the commanders,
• 20:58
  even the officers themselves, together as a department, as a team.
• 21:02
  We're super dedicated in making sure we're doing the best job.
• 21:06
  And it's not just the department.
• 21:07
  It's the mayor, the council members, even the state legislators.
• 21:12
  I think they're they're all very dedicated in helping us to do our job,
• 21:17
  because we are really one community.
• 21:20
  When we work together, we can get a lot of really good stuff done.
• 21:23
  But as the chief having sometimes that burden, it's a lot.
• 21:30
  And then one one more thing I think I want to say though,
• 21:32
  is having a real just personally having a really strong, family support system.
• 21:39
  So, my wife,
• 21:42
  she's, super supportive.
• 21:44
  I mean, she comes from a law enforcement, family background.
• 21:48
  Yeah.
• 21:49
  So I leave super early for work sometimes, and I come home super late.
• 21:55
  And so for her to be as understanding as she is, and then, like,
• 21:58
  I go to a lot of evening events, and, I mean, you've been there, Brandy.
• 22:01
  You know, she's right there with me.
• 22:03
  Tree lighting ceremony.
• 22:04
  She was there. Evening event dinner.
• 22:06
  She's there. And you know what I mean.
• 22:08
  So yeah, just to have her next to my side, to be understanding, to know that,
• 22:14
  you know, when I'm coming home late today.
• 22:16
  No worries.
• 22:17
  Just come home and you can just to have her understand that.
• 22:20
  That's super helpful. So.
• 22:22
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:23
  And then, chief, on the flip side, you know,
• 22:25
  I ask you what the toughest part was, but is there anything that surprised you?
• 22:28
  In a good way.
• 22:30
  You mean with the job and.
• 22:32
  Stuck on this role? Yes.
• 22:33
  You know, this this may sound weird, but
• 22:37
  a lot of people tell me that, I'm really well-spoken
• 22:40
  and I'm super smart, and, you know, chief, you're doing such a great job.
• 22:45
  I don't see it.
• 22:46
  You know,
• 22:48
  I see myself as this guide
• 22:50
  is a local guy who's just kind of in recruit school.
• 22:54
  I was the guy in the back, and I just didn't want to be noticed.
• 22:58
  Even going through high school, even in college,
• 23:00
  you know, I'm just kind of the guy who kind of does me.
• 23:04
  I come to work, I, you know, I guess I have a really.
• 23:08
  I have a great work ethic.
• 23:10
  I guess that's one thing. Okay.
• 23:11
  If if I'm going to acknowledge, you know, I, I do acknowledge
• 23:16
  I like to work hard
• 23:17
  and I do have high expectations, but I guess I don't see what people
• 23:21
  I don't see that special something that others maybe see in me.
• 23:25
  But to have people say that, you know, you're doing a great job.
• 23:29
  You're now you're super smart, you speak well, that does make me feel good.
• 23:32
  I guess it kind of validates the hard work that I'm putting in.
• 23:37
  Yeah, so that's cool. But yeah, I just don't.
• 23:39
  I don't see it.
• 23:40
  Shoot, I'm kind of the guy who, I mean, sometimes I shoot,
• 23:43
  I think I'm doing, you know, I kind of let that pigeon come out every now and then.
• 23:50
  But, yeah,
• 23:50
  I'm the guy who likes to go to a party, maybe, and sit in the back of the room
• 23:54
  and kind of sit quietly.
• 23:55
  But maybe as a chief, I realize I can't do that.
• 23:58
  You know? I got to get out there.
• 23:59
  I got to shake hands.
• 24:00
  I got to talk story, and I'm.
• 24:03
  I'm not okay with that. I think there's a good middle ground.
• 24:05
  You know, they say leading from the middle, right. Sure.
• 24:07
  It wasn't the in the front making like, you know, everything. Yeah.
• 24:10
  Not always in the back watching and making everyone else do the work.
• 24:12
  But when you leave from the middle,
• 24:14
  you know where you can hear what other people are saying. Sure. Yeah.
• 24:16
  You know, there's there's something to be said about that as well.
• 24:19
  So, chief, how will you be celebrating the New year?
• 24:22
  You know, every single year?
• 24:24
  One thing that I haven't forgotten, I guess, even as chief is,
• 24:29
  there's this one guy that, has been my friend
• 24:33
  from intermediate school, and, his wife grew up with my wife
• 24:36
  over and wife Paula, and we still spend a lot of time with them.
• 24:40
  So we've maintained that, friendship over the years.
• 24:43
  We've been friends for she, I want to say like 30 plus years.
• 24:47
  Wow. So, yeah, every single, new Year we get together.
• 24:51
  So we're going to do that again this year?
• 24:53
  Yeah.
• 24:53
  So spending time with family and friends is super important
• 24:56
  to me and maintaining that relationship.
• 24:57
  So this year we're going to do the same.
• 24:59
  Yeah, we'll get to spend some time together.
• 25:01
  And around this time New Year you know folks are often reflective.
• 25:05
  Yeah.
• 25:05
  So what was the best thing that happened to you in 2025?
• 25:11
  You know, my daughter is finishing her,
• 25:14
  final year in pharmacy school. She,
• 25:18
  was in Hilo for the past three years.
• 25:21
  She's over at, Daniel Carnoy, pharmacy school over there.
• 25:25
  So she's been living living in Hilo is the first time she's been away from home.
• 25:30
  Her final year in, pharmacy school,
• 25:33
  though all of her clinical rotations are here on Oahu.
• 25:36
  So after three years of being away, she's finally here.
• 25:38
  Back home.
• 25:39
  So, I mean, I'm close to my daughter,
• 25:41
  so I'm glad finally she's able to come back home.
• 25:43
  So that was awesome for me.
• 25:45
  Having her come back home and live home.
• 25:47
  So yeah, I think that was probably really good.
• 25:49
  Okay. Here, girl. Dad.
• 25:51
  And, chief, do you have any New Year's resolutions?
• 25:53
  You know, I think just like everyone else.
• 25:56
  Just trying to get more healthy.
• 25:58
  I'm on the right path.
• 25:59
  Just continuing to go down that path of becoming more healthy,
• 26:03
  and then, Yeah, just spending more time with family.
• 26:07
  Like I said, you know, of a very strong, family support.
• 26:11
  So, yeah, just getting to spend as much time
• 26:13
  as I can with my son and daughter, definitely spend more time with my wife.
• 26:17
  So, yeah, continuing down that path.
• 26:20
  All right. Well, is there anything that we missed?
• 26:24
  You know, I think just
• 26:24
  maybe going back to that firework thing and,
• 26:27
  also this holiday season, you know, really is just, again,
• 26:32
  a call to action from the public really want to encourage people
• 26:35
  this holiday season to remember what happened last holiday season.
• 26:39
  And also Monu, you know, the tragedy that,
• 26:43
  really a lot of people, were involved with,
• 26:47
  you know, fireworks.
• 26:49
  It's nice to look at, explosions
• 26:52
  last, you know, a second, or two.
• 26:55
  But the consequences for something illegal like that lasts much, much longer.
• 27:00
  So before people, you know, light that fuze
• 27:04
  or think about doing those types of activities, I really,
• 27:08
  I really encourage them to think twice before they do that kind of thing.
• 27:12
  One, it's not safe to it's illegal.
• 27:16
  And three, it can really hurt someone and even take a person's life.
• 27:21
  So just don't do it.
• 27:23
  Then also if they're going to celebrate, that's fine, but celebrate responsibly.
• 27:27
  If you're going to go to someone's house, you're going to drink,
• 27:29
  you know, use a ride chair if you're going to leave.
• 27:31
  Better yet, just stay over.
• 27:34
  But celebrate responsibly. I'm not saying don't celebrate.
• 27:36
  You know, I'm going to go to my friend's house.
• 27:39
  You know, I don't drink or anything like that,
• 27:41
  but if you are going to drink, you know, make sure you do it responsibly.
• 27:44
  But this holiday season, let's have fun.
• 27:47
  Let's celebrate. But let's do it the right way.
• 27:49
  So yeah, that's just kind of my, call out to the public.
• 27:53
  We're going to be out there again, HPD we're going to be doing what we need
• 27:57
  to do.
• 27:57
  But, yeah, let's all do our part to keep everyone safe.
• 28:01
  Well said. And, chief, mahalo for your time.
• 28:03
  Yeah. No problem. Hello.
• 28:05
  And from the Honolulu Police Department, from the office of the mayor
• 28:08
  and everyone here in the city and County of Honolulu.
• 28:11
  We hope you have a very merry
• 28:12
  and safe holiday season by clicking on me, holding a keyhole.
• 28:16
  Until next time. Aloha. Oh!