The state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement was authorized Friday to enter into memoranda of agreement regarding the temporary housing of their pretrial detainees with the four county police departments and the state Department of Law Enforcement.

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The state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement was authorized Friday to enter into memoranda of agreement regarding the temporary housing of their pretrial detainees with the four county police departments and the state Department of Law Enforcement.

The go-ahead — which empowered DOCARE Enforcement Chief Jason Redulla to execute the memoranda with other state and county law enforcement agencies — came by unanimous vote at the monthly meeting of the Board of Land and Natural Resources in Honolulu.

DOCARE has full police power but no place to house arrestees, and Redulla asked the panel for the authority to enter into and sign contracts to reimburse other agencies to book and detain those DOCARE arrests.

“When we arrest individuals, we have to transport them to a holding facility to be booked and to be held if they cannot make bail. In these instances, DOCARE does not have its own facility,” Redulla told the board during testimony. “So, we depend on the county police departments and our state partner, the state sheriffs at the Department of Law Enforcement, to assist us with the housing of a detainee who cannot make bail pending their disposition with the court.”

Redulla said the holding agencies of DOCARE’s detainees are “responsible for the health and welfare of our detainee while they’re in custody.”

“With that, our detainee is consuming things that the department has to pay for — things like food, water, linen, utilities like the electricity that’s being used,” Redulla testified.

Redulla told the panel that the Kauai Police Department officials “want us to formalize an agreement with them in order to address not just legal matters pertaining to custody, but also for reimbursement of these costs.”

“We also anticipate that other county agencies, as well as our state partner, will likely want to enter into an agreement, as well,” he said.

Riley Smith, Hawaii Island board member, said he had spoken with Redulla prior to the meeting and wanted to put the gist of the conversation on the record.

“What I wanted to clarify and make sure is that this does not give the authority or ability (to) DOCARE to work with the Department of Homeland Security and also ICE,” Smith said, referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by acronym.

Redulla told the commission that Hawaii Revised Statutes, Chapter 199, which governs conservation and resources enforcement, gives DOCARE “authority to enter into cooperative agreements with state, county and federal agencies.”

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“With respect to the Department of Homeland Security and, specifically, Immigration and Customs Enforcement — first, our relation with them is very infrequent and very rare,” Redulla testified. “We do not participate in immigration enforcement, nor are we a member of any immigration enforcement task forces.

“Additionally, with respect to the matter of this submittal, we do not hold any of our arrestees at ICE or Department of Homeland Security facilities. If the board would like to restrict the cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, I don’t see that being a problem, given the very rare and infrequent nature of our contact with them.”

Smith said he was satisfied with the circumstance and saw no need to make amendments, and BLNR Chairman Ryan Kanaka‘ole agreed.

Kaiwi Yoon, an at-large board member, asked for an average monthly or yearly number of pretrial detainees arrested by DOCARE.

“You know, it’s a very rare circumstance when we have to arrest a violator,” Redulla replied. “Typically, with the more frequent and common violations that we deal with, they end up with criminal penalties that are petty misdemeanors or misdemeanors. And as a result, under the law, we can issue citations to those violators. It’s only under very rare circumstances or in circumstances where the criminal penalty is a felony where we may have to arrest an individual.”

He added that DOCARE officers also sometimes have to execute court-ordered arrest warrants.

“So, we might have one or less than five a month statewide. It’s normally not a large number annually,” Redulla said about DOCARE pretrial detainee numbers.

“In fact, in recent memory, I think the last time we may have taken a large number of people into custody was during the (Thirty Meter Telescope) protests from 2019,” he said, referring to the mass arrest of 38 individuals, mostly kupuna, on charges of obstructing public passage on Maunakea Access Road.

Those cases were later dismissed.

At one point in the Friday’s meeting, the floor was ceded to online testifiers. One on Zoom identified as Dexter Watts appeared on screen as a male senior citizen. Without words, that portion of the screen switched to a grainy video of hardcore adult gay male pornographic sex with block-letter text at the top stating, in all caps, “PROUD TO BE IN THE ISLAMIC STATE.”

Commissioners appeared calm as the images flashed on screen for about 10 seconds. However, two voices, both women, could be heard. “Porn?” one inquired. “Yeah,” the other stated.

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“Oh my god,” said the first.

Email John Burnett at [email protected].