The 67th annual Hawaii State Law Enforcement Officials Association Conference was held Sept. 27-29 at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott.
Beginning in 1982, HSLEAO began highlighting officers of the year and honoring them at the annual conference.
Each year, one officer from the four counties along with federal and military law enforcement are bestowed with the state’s top honor. The selection was based on distinguished law enforcement and/or exceptional achievement in any law enforcement endeavor
Kona’s own Officer Wyattlane Nahale was chosen as the 2023 Officer of the Year. In addition to this award, he was chosen to speak at the conference about his outreach work with Kona’s homeless population.
Effective community policing requires creativity and ingenuity from everyone involved, to include community police officers like Nahale. Homelessness has become an issue nationwide and Hawaii is no different.
Recognizing that there was a need to develop a plan to assist the homeless individuals in our Kona community, Nahale began brainstorming different ideas which evolved into an “out of the box” innovative idea. Called the H.O.N.OUR Community Project (Homeless Outreach Nurturing OUR Community), the concept was to build partnerships between law enforcement, county council members, community stakeholders, county prosecutors, the judiciary, nonprofit organizations and the homeless/unsheltered individuals in the community.
Nahale worked diligently to bring together all of the involved organizations and on Nov, 14, 2019, the H.O.N.OUR project was officially launched. The inaugural H.O.N.OUR project event was a beautification project conducted at a county beach park, in which homeless/unsheltered individuals, volunteers from the community and outreach workers participated.
Their inaugural event drew eight homeless individuals helping to clean up the beach at Old Airport Park. As word got around, what started as distrust grew into mutual understanding between the police and homeless.
By the end of the project, the volunteers and homeless alike related that they felt a sense of accomplishment and hope. The homeless individuals related that they just wanted to “feel like part of the community again” and the H.O.N.OUR project provided them that opportunity.
To date, the program has assisted in excess of 200 homeless individuals/volunteers with various services. Working with local service providers, the program has provided airfare for reunification with family members in their hometowns, purchased and provided vehicles, and providing employment opportunities and interim/permanent housing.
The program has also provided other related services including medical treatment, food, gift cards, clothing, home furniture, construction tools and more.
“The innovative thinking of Officer Nahale has led to renewed hope that through community engagement and community service, we can make a positive impact in the lives of the homeless in our community,” reads his award biography.
The conference also honored awardees from 2020-2022 after a hiatus due to COVID. The previous Big Island recipients included Charles Caldwell-Kaai for 2020 and Michael Sailer for 2022.
In addition to the awards, the three-day conference covered topics including compassionate enforcement of park closure rules, the Hawaii State Fusion Center —a Hawaii state government program that facilitates intelligence sharing between local, state and federal agencies and the public and private sectors — officer mental health, fentanyl enforcement, and re-entering society for justice-involved individuals.