HPD Staffing Shortage Tracker: Honolulu Police Vacancies, Recruits and Retirements

The latest numbers

At a City Council Public Safety Committee meeting on Sept. 24, 2026, Chief Lazar said HPD was working to close a gap of about 400 sworn vacancies. Counting officers already in the police academy or in field training, he said, the gap is 275 positions, “275 away from 2,177 full-strength officers” (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30). By ISPI's arithmetic on those two figures, a 400-officer gap is about 18 percent of full strength. In July, Hawaii News Now described the department as down more than 20 percent of its uniformed officers (Hawaii News Now, July 1).

• Gross sworn vacancies: about 400 (Sept. 24, 2026, as stated by the chief), after 463 in HPD's July 1 report (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30; Hawaii News Now, July 29).
• Net of recruits in training: 275 (Sept. 24) and 279 (Feb. 2) (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30; HPD budget presentation).
• Full strength: 2,177 sworn officers, per the chief (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30).
• Officers eligible to retire: 312 with 25 years of service, as of early July 2026 (Hawaii News Now, July 1).
• Civilian vacancies: 177 as of Feb. 2, 2026 (HPD budget presentation).

Vacancy timeline

Each row below is a figure as the source reported it. Different documents count on different dates and sometimes on different bases, so the rows are not a perfectly matched series.

The budget document notes that its 448 figure reflects the deletion of 21 deactivated positions (HPD budget presentation), which may explain part of the gap between that count and the roughly 470 that Hawaii News Now reported for the start of the year.

Gross versus net: how HPD counts a vacancy

Two numbers circulate, and both are accurate. The gross figure counts every funded sworn position without a sworn officer in it. The net figure subtracts people who are already hired but still training. Presenting the FY2027 budget in March, then-interim Chief Rade Vanic explained that HPD's recruits “don't count toward our vacancies until after an extended period of time,” because they must finish training first. Adding the 152 recruits then in training and 17 non-sworn police service officers brought the 448 vacancies down to 279 (Star-Advertiser, March 11; HPD budget presentation).

The budget presentation also set out when those recruits would land: 23 positions to be filled before July 1, 2026, and 129 in FY2027, drawn from recruit classes 217 to 220, which started the academy between April 2025 and January 2026 (HPD budget presentation).

For readers, the practical difference is this. The gross number is the better guide to how many trained officers are missing from patrol and investigations today. The net number is the better guide to how far HPD will be from full strength once the current pipeline graduates. Neither number accounts for recruits who don't finish; as Hawaii News Now noted in July, not all of them make it through.

The recruiting pipeline

Vanic told the Council in March that HPD runs four academy classes a year and expected to hire about 200 recruits a year. The most recent class then had 49 recruits, and he expected at least 50 in the next (Star-Advertiser, March 11). The Star-Advertiser reported a recruit base salary of about $79,812 a year as of July 1, 2025 (Star-Advertiser, March 11).

By early July, HPD had five academy classes underway with 155 recruits, and Hawaii News Now reported that the department had added bonuses for new hires (Hawaii News Now, July 1). Later that month, the station reported 76 recruits split between two classes: a class of 37 about to graduate, which it called the largest graduation in 12 years, and a new class of 66 starting (Hawaii News Now, July 29).

In September, Lazar credited his predecessor with getting 66 recruits into the academy, which he called a 12-year record, and graduating 37, which he called a seven-year record. He said HPD was on track to hire about the same number of officers again in October (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30). The two outlets describe the records differently, so this tracker reports both as stated.

Speed is the other recruiting issue. Hawaii News Now reported that HPD's hiring process can take six to 12 months, and the president of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO), Don Faumuina, said candidates have joined faster-hiring departments on the mainland instead. Lazar's goal is a 90-day process, using an online written exam, a video interview and a proctored, recorded physical agility test, and he said he hoped to have it in place within a year (Hawaii News Now, July 29). In September he said HPD had added staff for background checks and recruiting and was working on marketing locally, statewide and on the continent (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30).

Retirements and retention

The other side of the ledger is departures. The task force counted 228 officers eligible for retirement as of July 1, 2025 (Star-Advertiser, March 11). Hawaii News Now reported 312 officers eligible to retire with 25 years of service in early July 2026, and “more than 300” later that month (Hawaii News Now, July 1; Hawaii News Now, July 29). Those counts come from different reports a year apart, so ISPI does not treat the change between them as a measured trend without HPD's underlying data.

In July, Lazar said financial incentives are needed to keep experienced officers past the 25-year mark, mentioning a retention bonus, a housing stipend and discussions about childcare. SHOPO has proposed retention bonuses of $7,500 a year for officers who reach 25 years, rising by $1,000 to $2,000 each year after (Hawaii News Now, July 29). In September, Lazar told the Council that the biggest challenge he had identified was pay compared with similar-sized departments, and that he wanted to work with the Council and SHOPO on it (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30).

Budget context

HPD's FY2027 operating budget request is $396.2 million, up 5.48 percent from $375.7 million in FY2026. Salaries account for $326.1 million of the request, an increase of $19.5 million. The department asked for no new positions, and it included $1.7 million in retention pay for its communications division (HPD budget presentation), which the Star-Advertiser identified as police dispatchers and emergency radio operators (Star-Advertiser, March 11).

Requested non-holiday overtime totals $32.7 million ($29.9 million from the General Fund and $2.7 million from the Highway Fund), unchanged from the FY2026 appropriation, and $22.0 million of it is in Patrol (HPD budget presentation). On the civilian side, HPD planned to fill 19 of its 177 civilian vacancies before July 1, 2026, and 70 in FY2027 (HPD budget presentation).

What the numbers show, and what they don't

Three things stand out. First, recruiting improved in 2026: the record-size classes are real, but because recruits only count once trained, gross vacancies stayed in the mid-400s through July before the chief's September figure of about 400. Second, retirement exposure is large. With more than 300 officers eligible to retire, the pipeline has to replace departures as well as close the existing gap. Third, both hiring speed and retention matter. The 2026 reporting on candidates lost to faster-hiring departments points to process. ISPI's HI-03 paper and PB-12 policy brief argue that the larger, longer-running driver is retention tied to Hawaii's cost of living, and they recommend housing assistance, service-linked loan forgiveness and cost-of-living supplements.

WP-05 puts the cost question in numbers: it cites the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, which put Hawaii's 2024 regional price parity at 109.95, about 10 percent above the national average. The same pressures show up beyond Honolulu; Maui Police Department reported 154 vacancies, including 81 sworn positions, in April 2026, as WP-05 notes. For the wider pattern across island jurisdictions, see why island police departments face structural officer shortages and the island law enforcement workforce crisis worldwide.

What the public record doesn't yet show is a consistent monthly series. HPD's monthly vacancy figures reach the public mainly through Council presentations and news coverage. ISPI hasn't found a published month-by-month table; if HPD or the city releases one, this tracker will switch to it and cite it directly.

How this tracker is updated

ISPI Research Staff update this page monthly, and sooner when HPD presents new figures to the City Council or the Honolulu Police Commission. Every figure is tied to a dated public source. When sources disagree, both are shown with their dates rather than averaged. Calculations ISPI makes from published figures are labeled as ISPI's. Corrections follow our editorial standards.

Related ISPI coverage: HPD Chief Lazar's drone program, the new police chief and community policing in island jurisdictions. For all of our Hawaii work, see the Hawaii hub; for workforce research across islands, see Law Enforcement & Community Safety.

Sources

1. Honolulu Police Department, “Operating Budget, Fiscal Year 2026-2027,” Dept. Com. 174(26), filed with the City Clerk March 10, 2026
2. Ian Bauer, “HPD seeks $400M budget for vacancies, vehicles and other needs,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, March 11, 2026
3. “HPD officer vacancies near record levels as new chief David Lazar takes over,” Hawaii News Now, July 1, 2026
4. Lynn Kawano, “New HPD chief wants to speed up hiring process using technology,” Hawaii News Now, July 29, 2026
5. Ian Bauer, “HPD chief details plans to address staffing, modernization,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Sept. 30, 2026
6. ISPI papers: HI-03, PB-12, WP-05