This School Wanted Officers On Campus. 3 Others Will Get Them First
Two years ago, Kaui Asinsin brought the idea of getting a police presence at Nānākuli High and Intermediate School to her neighborhood board. Now, a pilot program with the police department is almost ready to be implemented at three Oʻahu schools, but Nānākuli High and Intermediate is not one of them.
Jonathan Frye, vice president of the police union, said in a statement that HPD is too short-staffed to place officers in schools, but he called using retired officers “the next best thing.” “Every student deserves to go to school on a safe campus,” the statement says. “We are hopeful the pilot program succeeds and becomes a model that can be expanded island wide.”
Advocates of the program say they hope SROs will help foster positive relationships between police and youth in the community. “I wanted to really use this as an opportunity for our students and for our families to see that HPD is here to help,” State Sen. Samantha DeCorte DeCorte said. “Officer so-and-so is actually uncle.”