KAILUA-KONA — Steady can be far more valuable than splashy.
Because it isn’t always the high speed chases or wild foot pursuits that end in arrests which earns an officer an outstanding reputation among his or her peers.
Often — as is the case with Officer Adam Roberg — it’s going above and beyond and doing your job consistently well that earns the utmost respect in the law enforcement field.
“Sometimes it’s the big investigation or the flashy case that draws attention,” said Kona Crime Prevention Committee board director Kim Taniyama. “But Officer Roberg draws attention for his high quality of work over a sustained period of time, essentially every day he shows up to work.”
Roberg, 32, was named Officer of the Year by the Kona Crime Prevention Committee Wednesday at an awards luncheon held at the Courtyard by Marriott King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel.
For more than 30 years, the Kona Crime Prevention Committee has recognized the region’s finest police officers who work every day to keep the community safe.
Roberg was recognized along with nine other officers who were named Officer of the Month between July 2017 and June 2018. The two-time Officer of the Month during that time frame was selected from the elite field for his thoroughly diligent work.
“It’s a fantastic community,” Roberg said after the ceremony. “It’s a fantastic department. It’s everything that aloha is supposed to be, and when we all work together, it’s even better.”
According to a summary provided to West Hawaii Today, Roberg in the first quarter of 2018 led his watch in the number of cases initiated and arrests made, including six arrests for operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant.
Those numbers put him second in the entire Kona District, led only by a recruit officer Roberg himself trained.
“There’s no shame in coming in second, however,” said Taniyama, “because Officer Roberg was able to accomplish his feat of all those investigations and citations while also undertaking his duties both as a field training officer and as the field training officer coordinator.”
Roberg, originally from Maine, transferred to the Hawaii Police Department in March 2014 from Honolulu, where he was named Metropolitan Police Officer of the Year in 2013.
He was with Kona Patrol from March 2014 to April 2018, and has been part of South Kohala patrol since.
The officer was previously honored in July 2017 as officer of the month because of his “consistently high quality of work over a sustained period of time,” Taniyama said.
Between May 2016 and May 2017, she noted, Roberg investigated more than 236 criminal incidents, an average of more than 18 every month.
That was on top of traffic investigations and other calls.
In total, she said, Roberg in those 12 months made 111 arrests, 38 of which were for operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant.
“Officer Roberg’s success with his DUI investigations means that in every 13 arrests by Kona Patrol for DUI offenses between May 2016 and May 2017,” Taniyama said, “Officer Roberg was responsible for one.”
But she noted, Roberg’s stats are just part of a bigger picture, acknowledging the officer’s work ethic, attitude and initiative, all of which go to help other units in the department.
“Although the Officer of the Month nomination is historically focused on one particular above and beyond investigation,” stated a summary provided to West Hawaii Today, “it is fact that Officer Roberg continually works above and beyond all the time in generating cases and making arrests. This fact cannot go unnoticed.”
Roberg, addressing the crowd in the hotel’s ballroom, thanked his wife for her support.
“If there’s ever a harder job, it’s being a spouse of a police officer,” he said, going on to extend his gratitude to the community.
Kona Crime Prevention Committee President Diane Blancett-Maddock said it’s important that the community take the time to recognize those who serve it and said it also makes the community to proud to see its officers commended for their effort.
“Our officers don’t get enough recognition,” she said. “They’re part of our community; they’re part of our ohana, and we want them to know that we appreciate everything they do for us.”
Police Chief Paul Ferreira echoed the need to recognize outstanding officers.
“It is only because of them that the police department shines,” he told the crowd. “It is only because of the officers that are out in the field, doing the work, doing the ground-pounding that makes this department what it is — your police department that is second-to-none in the state of Hawaii.”
