In the past and present school issues have always been a relevant issue. As of September 17, 2025, the Honolulu Police Commission has thought of implementing police officers into schools to address school violence and behavior. In particular, HPD (Honolulu Police Department) has been targeting three schools which have been notoriously known for school violence: Kaimuki, Kapolei, and Waianae. Honolulu police officer, Maj. Brandon Nakasato, states “Officers would actually be embedded into the schools and working with school administrators. So they’ll be actually assigned to a school.”
Furthermore, HPD considered this approach because HPD is currently short on police officers. Namely, HPD already has about 460 officer vacancies to the point where the department is seeking to hire retired officers on 89-day contracts. Because of this, HPD is seeking to target these three schools to encourage a potential stop in school violence and decrease crimes in schools. Nakasato states “Addressing violent crimes in general to include some juveniles that have been involved in violent crimes, that’s ongoing. We’re not going to stop.”
Rade Vanic, Honolulu’s interim police chief, told the Police Commission he’s also re-establishing a juvenile task force to decrease crimes committed by minors. Vanic says “Not only does it look at how juveniles are committing crimes, it also looks at the potential for working with the community to engage juveniles in a positive way.”
Police officers understand that it’s not only the enforcement that will help juveniles to stop committing crimes, but also understanding what the juveniles are going through is also a key process in stopping these crimes. Paul Aio, a schools recourse officer (SRO), worked in Washington state for 4 years before he decided to return to O’ahu to retire. Aio now works in Nānākuli-Māʻili neighborhood board where he advocates for putting police officers into local schools. Aio states “Being an officer in a school requires specific skills, total honesty. You got to be trusting too,” Aio said. “Be able to sit there and listen.” Aio also states “Understanding what they’re going through,” he said. “That’s the major factor of why they’re becoming at-risk kids in the school now.”
The currently stationed officers are not meant to advise or strictly enforce the laws onto the kids. Rather, the police officers seek to connect with the kids and only enforce the law when it is broken. Currently 19 public schools on Maui have stationed officers at the schools which work in accordance with HPD and not the DOE (Department of Education). “Instead, these armed officers are tasked with enforcing laws and addressing criminal behavior on campus,” said Sgt. Jonathan Honda, who oversees school resource officers on Maui. As a result these schools see decreased criminal activity in schools whereas O’ahu sees more. Currently, Police officers were called to Wai’anae Highschool more than 300 times and Nanakuli High and Intermediate School 138 times over the last school year.
HPD is aims to strike an implementation of officers into O’ahu’s Highschools to enforce the laws and rules. HPD looks for a decrease in school criminal behavior and excessive fighting drama. Nakasato says, “That’s really in the beginning stages also, but together with PAL, SROs, as well as just reaching out and engaging with the juveniles — that’s some of our preliminary goals here.”
