Public Safety Priority One
Keeping us and our children safe
Kirk will make sure our first responders have the training, equipment and resources they need, and will merge EMS and Fire Departments to speed resources and save lives.
Having worked closely with our first responders I know that we need to attract and retain men and women of high quality. Ensuring that they have the best tools and training will be among my top priorities. Meeting the safety needs of a large city like Honolulu is a real challenge and it will take commitment and dedication from our firefighters, police officers, paramedics and lifeguards to meet these critical needs. As such, I pledge to work with Honolulu’s finest in the following ways:
- Merging Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) with the Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) not only makes sense, but is also critical to saving lives. Initial steps were taken while I was managing the city to create this merger, but no additional efforts have been made since. As mayor I will pick up where I left off and move this project toward completion. Doing so will provide local communities with better and quicker access to emergency medical services, while eliminating service often duplicated by the EMS and HFD.
- I will dedicate more resources and provide greater support to the Honolulu Police Department’s Community Policing Program by working with police officials to ensure that the program is better funded so that we can move this valuable program into more areas of our city and county.
