Kauai Woman Spring 2005
 

   

Sounding Off

Representing more than 70 combined years of police service, the women officers of KPD voice their opinions

   

By Pamela V. Brown

   

  
 

Policing on a small island

A police officer born and raised on Kauai or who has lived here a long time will inevitably be faced with the uncomfortable task of arresting or ticketing a friend or family member. The key to handling such situations is to be fair and not to play favorites, said the women officers of KPD. “I don’t care who you are, rich, poor, one of those who hang out at the pavilion or if you live in a mansion. I treat everybody the same,” said Lt. Regina Ventura. It’s just part of your job and most people understand that, said Officer Darla Abbatiello. “It matters how you make an arrest. You’ve got to have respect,” she said. “If they understand that you’re just doing your job and not showing any prejudice against them,” it usually goes smoothly. Officer Ginny “Pua” Scribner, who at 30 is the youngest of Kauai’s female cops, agrees. “You have to have a neutral attitude. You can’t go in there acting all big and tough.” People usually know they’re breaking the law, and “they’re mad at me at first,” Abbatiello said. “Then they come and thank me afterwards.”

Public perceptions

People who operate speeding vehicles – especially on the Wailua Golf Course stretch of Kuhio Highway rankle Officer Shelly Rodrigues. “A lot of young drivers don’t realize that driving a car at 70 miles per hour, you’re in a killing machine,” she said. Kids aren’t the only problem. “If you give someone a speeding ticket for 25 miles over the speed limit they’ll say, ‘Don’t you have something better to do?’ They’re missing the point,” she said. “We’re trying to save lives here.”

Manpower

When she first joined the force in 1980, there were two officers on duty in the Lihue district and two in the Kawaihau district, Ventura said. Now, 25 years later, she said those two districts are still staffed with two officers apiece, despite the phenomenal growth of each area. “We just don’t have the manpower,” she said. “We need the resources to do our job.” Long understaffed, the big problem at KPD seems to be small recruiting classes – it’s getting tougher to attract potential police officers when there are other, possibly easier, employment opportunities out there, said Sgt. Ezra Kanoho. “Small recruiting classes are a nationwide problem,” he said.

Equipment

“I’ve got a vice officer but I’ve got no computer for him,” Ventura said. In the early years, even simple things like notebooks and pens were in high demand. “I used to buy all my own pens and notebooks. We ran out several times,” Ventura said. “You’d see one pen and everyone would pounce on it.” Admittedly the equipment situation has gotten better over the years, and much of the department received new computers last year. Now Ventura is “fighting” to get new vehicles for the vice section. Just recently one vice officer opened the trunk to his unmarked car to find the tire well completely filled with water.

Respect and morale

“The hardest part of this job is dealing with the people you work for, the policies,” Rodrigues said. She’d like to see greater respect for patrol officers, who both she and Ventura call the backbone of the police department. “We work long hours, our days off are cancelled because there’s not enough manpower. We’ve been looked down on as just patrolmen, just idiots. We’ve been treated like the dogs of this department,” she said. “That’s just my personal opinion.” She believes that positive change will come about under the department’s new chief, K.C. Lum, who took office last September.

“There are a lot of bright officers at the patrol level and throughout the department. If the administration would take the time to at least hear what these officers have to say in terms of trying to make improvements in certain areas, that would help. Morale would change.”

Married to the job

Some officers find it a comfort to be married to or dating a fellow officer. Abbatiello, whose boyfriend is her work partner, said both of them completely understand when the other is called in to work. Scribner is married to an officer so they sometimes talk about work, but mostly try to keep it out of their home. Officer Karen Kapua, who declined to be interviewed for this article, is married to a KPD detective. That’s all well and good for some, but Sgt. Vicki Fonoimoana said that by not having a cop as a husband, she’s more easily able to regain her balance after a difficult shift of police work. “For me, that would be too many guns in the house,” she said. 		 
 

      

 

   

Contact Information:

Pamela V. Brown

(808) 651-3533 cell

(808) 821-1027 fax

pam@writepath.net

   

"Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art."             --- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Proverbs in Prose

   

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