06-03-2025
Armed security coming soon to select Hawaii schools
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Armed security guards could be coming to a school near local Hawaii residents sooner than they think.
Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan said work is underway with the Hawaii Department of Education to get school resource officers in high priority areas.
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'What we're looking to do is starting the next school year and then in two schools, one on the west side, either Nanakuli, Waianae High or Kapolei High School,' Logan said. 'Another one would be one on Central Oahu, So McKinley, Kaimuki, that kind of area, and those schools generally have more underrepresented community members.'
West side lawmakers said their communities are in dire need of authoritative figures to make an impression on keiki. Sen. Samantha DeCorte said fights are constant on campuses.
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'The schools just don't have enough security to break those fights up. So what happens most of the time is the school has to shut down, which means everybody goes into their classrooms,' Sen. DeCorte said. 'We come from a community that lacks law enforcement presence. So to be honest, I haven't heard any pushback from the community. I think we welcome it.'
Logan said the armed security will be recently-retired HPD officers who have experience in school settings or community policing teams.
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'We have a list of eight to 10 officers on the field that meet those requirements. And so based off of that, we have the send them to the training on the mainland under the National Resource Officer Association,' Logan said.
There is still time until the 2025-2026 school year and Sen. DeCorte said she is working with State sheriffs to get Waianae or Nanakuli high schools staffed with at least armed guard in the near future.'And we should be able to get these positions in place by next month,' Sen. DeCorte said. 'So our goal as far as the State is concerned is to get relief in there now and then hopefully when the SRO's come in, then we can switch out or we can even add to it.'
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