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SHOPO Letter To Police Commission On Kauai Police Department Survey

State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers sent this letter to Police Commission Chair Laurie Yoshida, following the results of the May 2024 survey completed in an effort to conduct a climate assessment of the Kaua'i Police Department.

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593 views5 pages

SHOPO Letter To Police Commission On Kauai Police Department Survey

State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers sent this letter to Police Commission Chair Laurie Yoshida, following the results of the May 2024 survey completed in an effort to conduct a climate assessment of the Kaua'i Police Department.

Uploaded by

Emma Grunwald
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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You are on page 1/ 5

SH PO

S T A T E O F H A W A I I O R G A N I Z A T I O N O F P O L I C E O F F I C E R S
Robert Cavaco " A P o li c e Or g a n i z at i o n f or P o l i ce O f fi c er s O n l y " Term of Office
State Board President Founded 1971 1-2022 to 12-2025

August 1, 2024

Ms. Laurie Yoshida, Chair


Kauai Police Commission
4444 Rice Street, Suite 150
Lihue, HI 96766

Dear Chair Yoshida:

Thank you for providing SHOPO with the Gallup slide presentation. Needless to say, the Gallup
results regarding the status of KPD are of great concern. We believe there is significant value in
the employee feedback you received, and we are interested in learning the Kauai Police
Commission’s next steps.

As you may know, SHOPO conducted an extensive survey of its Kauai Chapter members in August
2022. SHOPO publicly shared our survey results, and we made our consultant for the survey
available to present the results, as well as answer questions, to the Kauai Police Commission (KPC)
twice, once following our initial release of the results and then again when new members joined
the Commission. Given the new membership of the KPC, we provide those results to the KPC
again with this letter.

We believe the Gallup results reinforce the key areas of concern found in our 2022 survey and
brought to the attention of the Commission. Having reviewed the Gallup slide presentation, we
offer you some initial feedback.

SHOPO Kauai Chapter Member Survey (August 11-26, 2022)


SHOPO’s Kauai Chapter Member Survey covered a wide range of topics that impact employee
morale. Over 80% of our membership participated in the survey. KPC’s Gallup survey reinforces
what our survey found in 2022 regarding employee morale and the core factors impacting morale
and the overall effectiveness of KPD:
• poor communication
• lack of input from frontline employees
• lack of accessibility of upper ranks to frontline employees
• lack of appreciation by management of frontline employee’s work
• not understanding/not being part of the Chief’s vision for the Department

The next two pages provide a few key data points from our survey we find relevant to the recent
Gallup survey

Main Office & Honolulu Chapter Office Hawaii Chapter Office Kauai Chapter Office Maui Chapter Office
1717 Hoe Street 688 Kinoole Street, Room 220B 3176 Oihana Street, Suite 104, Lihue 1887 Wili Pa Loop, Suite 2
Honolulu, Hawaii 96819-3125 Hilo, Hawaii 96720-3877 Mailing Add: P. O. Box 1708 Wailuku, Hawaii 96793-1253
Tel: (808) 847-4676 "84 SHOPO" Tel: (808) 934-8405 Lihue, Hawaii 96766-5708 Tel: (808) 242-6129
www.shopohawaii.org Fax: (808) 841-4818 Fax: (808) 934-8210 Tel: (808) 246-8911 Fax: (808) 242-9519
Page 2 of 5
Page 3 of 5

Working conditions % vs. Avg


SHOPO survey asked its members to specifically assess the Chief of Police. While the Gallup survey
did not ask respondents to make the same assessment, there are a number of questions in the
Gallup survey that essentially provide an overall assessment of KPD management by the frontline
employees. For comparison purposes, we asked that the overall results of the Chief’s assessment
in our survey be converted to weighted averages as opposed to percentages (matching Gallup’s
method) to provide you with a better context to understand the views of our members two years
ago versus today.

Overall Mean Score 2.35


Page 4 of 5

Moving Forward: Ensuring Inclusion of Frontline Employees


“Confidence the survey will be acted on is the lowest score, at 1.62.” That’s the conclusion by
Gallup presented on the final, Executive Summary slide. This result does not surprise us, and we
urge the Commission to take that response from employees seriously.

We are not clear about what the next steps are following the survey. In looking at the Gallup
presentation, it appears that the next steps are for Gallup to do a bunch of meetings with
management. We think that is a mistake.

Having the Gallup group immediately go off to meet with management to begin the process of
change will do nothing but feed the frustration and concern our members expressed two years
ago in our survey, and again this year in your survey, about frontline employees not feeling
included in a process that is supposed to produce a product you expect them to “own.”

We respectfully offer the following suggestions:

1. Provide a briefing(s) of the survey results to frontline employees. While we appreciate


the Gallup team's technical prowess, the presentation is not user-friendly for most
frontline employees. You cannot expect employees to accept the survey findings, and the
steps needed to address KPD’s deficiencies if they do not understand the data and the
conclusions drawn from the data. If you want employees to feel like this process is
worthwhile, help them see those results.

When SHOPO released its survey results, we made our consultant for the survey available
to provide in-person and virtual briefings (and question/answer opportunities) for the
Chief of Police and his designated representative, the Mayor, members of the County
Council, business and community representatives, and the SHOPO Kauai Chapter
membership (in addition to the Police Commission). We also placed all materials on the
public portion of our website. We did this so as many people as possible could get the
information but also understand it as well.

2. Design the process to include SHOPO and HGEA. We did not see any references in the
Gallup survey presentation acknowledging the fact that frontline employees work under
collective bargaining agreements (CBA) and are represented by unions. Any effort at
“culture transformation” should not take place in a vacuum. It will be exponentially more
productive to engage the unions on the front end than after the fact which leaves the
entire process open to conflicts with the respective CBAs.

3. Communicate a feedback/progress report process and commit to it.


Too often, government task forces start with a flame and blow out with a flicker. Whoever
is doing the “transformation” work should not disappear for several months and then
come back with sweeping changes. This process should be a regular part of the ongoing
renewed dialogue amongst all employees.
Page 5 of 5

“We are hopeful that this survey begins a real


conversation about how we can collectively
address employee morale, retain officers, and
create a KPD that anyone would be proud to
join. SHOPO stands ready to work with all
stakeholders in achieving those goals.”

Those were the final words of our 2022 survey presentation. Our offer and commitment were
sincere then and it remains sincere today. You now have two employee surveys, conducted over
the course of two years, that identify the same challenges, providing you with crystal clear
direction: we need substantial change, now.

You are investing hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars into this effort, it is incumbent upon
you to do what is necessary to address the issues presented to you. Please let us know how we
can assist in the process.

Sincerely,

ROBERT CAVACO
President

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