Keeping Our Team Prepared

“I make no apologies for committing every resource. The county’s core service is public safety. Every dollar spent was a dollar well spent. Nobody should be under any illusion that things will always turn out so well. We were once again spared any devastation.”

Mayor Billy Kenoi

Civil Defense scans the Hilo Shoreline and surveys the landscape from the air

Readiness Requires Planning and Practice

Mayor Kenoi assesses potential tsunami dangers

We are committed to public safety, which requires a commitment to readiness. That means investing in the infrastructure that our police, firefighters and other emergency response crews rely on to do their jobs. It also means practice, drill and preparation for emergencies so our first-responders are ready.

Here is what has been happening:

• Staged the first county-wide tsunami warning drill on January 27, 2009 to test our response to the threat of a tsunami.
• Successfully and safely conducted a tsunami response on February 27, 2010, when our island was threatened by a tsunami generated by an earthquake in Chile.
• Provided $1.8 million in funding for the Fire Department’s new MD500 search and rescue helicopter, which will also serve as the department’s primary firefighting aircraft. The purchase allowed the department to retire a 28-year-old helicopter.
• Completed the new fire station in Pahoa.
• Established a West Hawai’i Emergency Operation Center at Kealakehe Police Station linked by video conference with Civil Defence EOC in Hilo.
• Started and have nearly completed construction of a new police station and motor vehicle registration and licensing office in Pahoa.
• Received a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant for a new water tanker for fire fighting in Pahala.
• New volunteer fire station garages funded in Pahala and Na’alehu.
• Established bicycle patrols and closed-circuit cameras in Kailua-Kona, and closed-circuit cameras in downtown Hilo.
• Activated City Watch and Nixle, v0ice and email systems to notify the public of civil defense emergencies and to provide up-to-date law enforcement information. Also activated Talisman, a text-messaging system to announce civil defense alerts, and an after-hours hotline for Civil Defense to alert callers to emergency and road closure information.
• Advanced plans to upgrade our public safety and police radio system to enhance coverage and meet federal requirements.
• Pursuing plans to establish broadband infrastructure police can use to link laptop computers and other equipment in patrol cars with public safety data systems.
• Briefed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on the geographic, economic and other issues related to extending the reach of public safety broadband access in the County of Hawai’i.
• Restored the Holiday Shared Ride.

Keeping visitors informed and safe during natural disasters is a topmost necessity to protecting our visitor industries. County officials, hotel and resort staff take appropriate steps in advance to manage visitors who may be unprepared for coping with natural disaster.

Billy Kenoi, Mayor - at EOC

Potential visitors watching the television coverage around the world saw that Hawaii is capable of protecting people and responding professionally and quickly to threats.

Crime Mitigation

Hawaii's Finest - Our Police Force