The Honolulu Police Department is looking for qualified candidates to shore up staffing, increase officer safety and help fill 279 vacancies that cost the city more than $2.5 million in overtime expenses in a single quarter.

The search for new officers comes at a time when national and local attitudes toward policing, starting pay and Honolulu’s high cost of living are making it hard to attract people to a career in law enforcement.

As of December, HPD was authorized to fund a police force of 2,143 sworn officers and had 1,864 on duty, or 87% of the paid-for positions, according to figures released by the department.

“The challenges that police officers face seem to grow every day. The added demands on policing, exposure to defamation and politically motivated attacks, and anti-police sentiment make it difficult to continue to attract applicants who might otherwise be interested in becoming an officer,” Maj. Ben Moszkowicz, Human Resources Division commander, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Despite the challenges, our recruiting team has been able to find and hire a rec­ord number of police recruits in 2020. We are optimistic that at least here in Hawaii, we still have women and men who are willing to step up and accept the challenge of being one of ‘Honolulu’s Finest.’”

In addition to overtime pay, sworn officer vacancies can lead to safety concerns, especially as police experience more violence against officers.

“In addition to the number of vacancies, officers are entitled to time off. To account for these factors, our patrol division commanders have the discretion to bring in additional officers on overtime to cover the periods of staff shortages. Being fully staffed would allow the department to provide additional services to the public with less overtime funding,” said Moszkowicz.

While attending HPD’s Ke Kula Maka‘i training academy and during the Field Training and Evaluation Program and 4th Watch, where recruits are paired with an officer for on-the-job training in different divisions, recruits will earn $65,652 per year, or $73,556 including the standard of conduct differential if specific performance metrics are met.

Vacancies in all eight police patrol districts cost taxpayers $2.52 million in overtime payments during the second fiscal quarter, from October to December, to cover shifts left empty by a lack of officers. That overtime cost is just to cover for officer shortages. Total overtime payments can be much higher when you add in overtime for investigations, court appearances and other reasons.

The overtime to cover officer shortages in the third fiscal quarter — January to March 2012 — fell to $1.9 million as the department realigned shift work schedules, monitored patrol staffing strength and increased the number of personnel in some districts.

“The department is guided by laws, collective bargaining agreements, city and department policies, and department practices in the compensation for work performed by employees,” Major Eric Yose­mori, Finance Division commander, told the Star- Advertiser. “Staffing shortages in districts and divisions are generally filled by personnel who work in the district or division.”

On Wednesday, Yose­mori told police commissioners that element commanders are aware of the tight budget and have done an excellent job of managing overtime.

“Thank you to the whole department for their prudence and trying to manage overtime despite the vacancies,” Commissioner Carrie K.S. Okinaga told Yosemori on Wednesday. “This is obviously a group effort, and the numbers are clear.”

In February, City Council Chairman Tommy Waters introduced a resolution directing the city auditor to find out whether the Police Department’s policies, protocols and procedures “ensure the fair and equitable distribution of overtime to all HPD officers, rather than just to certain HPD officers” and “that HPD overtime privileges are not abused.”

The resolution would have the auditor make recommendations to address overtime distribution and abuse and “reduce the overall amount of overtime compensation being paid by the City to HPD officers.”

At the time, former Chief Susan Ballard said she welcomed the audit while pointing out that staffing shortages that existed before the pandemic were only exacerbated by COVID-19 protocols and officers’ hard shift to enforcing state and county emergency orders.

HPD’s authorized force has remained at 2,143 sworn positions since 2017, and vacancies have stayed at 13% the past two years, the highest since 2017.

Applicants to become a metropolitan police recruit are down 33% compared with the same period last year, and police are working to expand their recruiting efforts and attract new officers to a dangerous profession that pays an initial salary that qualifies as low income in Honolulu’s high-cost-of- living environment.

Police commissioner Richard Parry said the 33% reduction in applicants is obviously a concern, and asked department representatives Wednesday about the decline.

“This could be a number of things. We have not identified a key link to any of the events that have transpired over the past year. It could be the George Floyd incident, the (Derek) Chauvin case and the guilty verdict,” said Capt. Brandon Nakasato following a presentation Wednesday to the Police Commission. “It could also be linked to the recent job market in Hawaii where we are competing with other employers out there who are also trying to hire as many people as they can as everything starts to open back up.”

Chauvin is the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of the murder of George Floyd.

“Although recruitment is a challenge, the department is not willing to compromise hiring standards due to the immense responsibility and power bestowed upon the position,” said Nakasato.