Chief: Officers who abused overtime while responding to COVID calls will be disciplined

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HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard says officers and supervisors who abused overtime privileges during COVID-19 enforcement efforts will be disciplined.

According to an audit previously reported by Hawaii News Now:

49 officers logged between 130 and 198 hours of overtime during a five-week period
Eight more said they clocked between 200 and 256 hours
And two recorded more than 300 hours over the five weeks.

Officers were limited to earning 20 hours of overtime a week.

In the statement, Ballard said that “although these officers worked the hours, they still violated the department’s policy.” She said COVID-19 enforcement will now be handled by regular duty officers.

Ballard also expressed the department’s frustration with the city for not allowing officers to fine emergency order violators.

“HPD expressed concern that the classification of emergency order violations as a misdemeanor was problematic and, in our opinion, a disproportionate response that would clog the courts,” she wrote.

Over the months, we have heard many opinions on HPD’s enforcement of the COVID emergency order. To say that enforcement...
Posted by Honolulu Police Department (Official Site) on Monday, November 30, 2020