As thousands of people on Oʻahu navigated traffic-clogged streets to get home or evacuate to higher ground during last week’s tsunami warning, patrol Sgt. Jonathan Frye was summoned to work.

But first, Frye, one of many police officers called in to respond to the emergency, had to find someone to watch his three children, ages 2, 6 and 9.

The tsunami passed without major incident, but the threat highlighted a problem facing parents everywhere, especially in Hawaiʻi, one of the most expensive states for child care in the nation. The challenge is particularly acute for first responders, who work around the clock and are often asked to stay overtime or, like Frye, come in on their days off.

The Honolulu Police Department announced last month that it plans to create a child care program for its personnel to boost recruitment and retention. Vacancies have continued to rise, reaching 465 sworn officers and 189 civilian employees in July, up from 434 officers and 187 civilians a year ago.

About a third of Honolulu police employees who responded to an internal survey in April said they have considered quitting the department, but the availability of a child care program would influence their decision to stay.

“We need to be able to find child care at a moment’s notice in order for us to be able to respond and care for the public and the needs of the city,” Frye, who is Honolulu chapter chair of the state police union, said during an interview Thursday at his Pearl City home.

His daughters played behind him while his son sat next to him at the dining room table, quietly reading a “Dog Man” book. Their great-grandmother ended up taking care of the kids while Frye worked during the July 29 tsunami.

“Having something like this available that’s affordable would make this a more enticing job,” he said, “because now people that have that drive and passion for law enforcement work and service to the community, now they’ll be able to do it and have a family.” 

Subsidy Or Child Care Center?

Department officials are considering multiple options to assist employees with child care, including offering a subsidy and building a child care center, said Honolulu police Maj. Parker Bode, who works in the human resources division.

The subsidy could come in the form of a monthly stipend. Or, the department could pay for contracted slots for employees’ children at state-licensed day care facilities, Bode told Civil Beat on Tuesday.

He said subsidizing child care is a shorter-term option that the department could implement in six months to a year.

“HPD is going to do this,” he said. “What it is, how much it’s going to cost, we’re not sure at this point.” 

But financial assistance alone doesn’t address two key problems with child care in the state — lack of space and limited hours, Bode said. 

Parents can spend a year or more on waitlists before securing a spot for their child at a day care center, said Deborah Zysman, executive director of Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network, and many families face challenges finding care outside of normal business hours.

That schedule is not conducive to police work, which is 24/7, Bode said.

A longer-term goal is for the department to open its own child care center for employees that would offer extended hours and other features such as a callout service in which a child care worker could take care of children at an officer’s home during an emergency, Bode said.

The department is exploring two potential models for a child care center. 

One is working with the Hawaiʻi School Facilities Authority, a state agency authorized to build preschools, to help transform an existing and underutilized police department building into a day care facility. 

Another is a partnership with the National Law Enforcement Foundation, which helps police departments around the country build and operate their own child care centers. 

The foundation applies for state and federal grants and solicits donations from private philanthropic organizations on behalf of departments to fund their child care programs for three years, he said. 

The group worked with the San Diego Police Department to open the nation’s first law enforcement child care center in 2023 in a city facility leased to the San Diego Police Officers Association. The care is provided by KinderCare, which operates child care centers and provides on-site services around the country, according to a city press release.

The San Diego center operates from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and provides emergency callout services to employees’ homes. It also charges employees half of market rate.

“We need to be able to find child care at a moment’s notice in order for us to be able to respond and care for the public and the needs of the city.”

Police Sgt. Jonathan Frye

The National Law Enforcement Foundation funded the program for three years with $3.7 million in state grants and donations from KinderCare and the Cushman Foundation, a nonprofit supporting humanitarian endeavors in San Diego.

Bode said the idea is that after the initial three years of partnering with the foundation, cities can explore including the continued operation of the child care center in their budgets. If the city funding isn’t feasible, the center can revert to charging market rates rather than 50%. 

Department officials haven’t decided yet which child care model will work in Honolulu, but the need is clear.

“The more timely solution would be financial assistance for child care; the more meaningful solution would be a child care center,” Bode said. “We hope, aim and plan to do both.”

No other police departments in the state offer such a benefit, according to spokespeople for the departments on Maui, Kauaʻi and the Big Island. 

Survey Says

Of the 574 employees who responded to the April survey, 350 said they would take advantage of a child care service if it was offered as a benefit, and 465 said they felt offering financial assistance for child care or opening a department child care center would help with recruitment and retention.

Important child care service features cited by employees are quality of care, cost, flexibility of hours, safety and location, according to the survey. 

Flexible hours will be essential for a child care service to benefit all police employees, said Lakea Tjomsland, a dispatcher and radio operator for the police department. She is also a union representative for the Hawaiʻi Government Employees Association, which represents police communications personnel.

Dispatchers work around the clock and are often mandated to stay hours past their scheduled shifts when the division is short-staffed, she said. Patrol officers also work at all hours of the day. They have 3/13 shifts, meaning they work three, 13-hour shifts in a row every week. 

“Will (the child care program) be geared toward all employees or just Monday through Friday normal business hour employees?” Tjomsland said. “We need a lot more information.” 

‘An Impossible Choice’

On a weekly basis, Frye said he talks with his wife, Danielle, her grandmother and her parents, either in person or via FaceTime, to align their schedules and divvy up child care duties. 

Figuring out who can watch the kids has been a balancing act since their son, Matthias, was born in 2016. Frye and his wife considered professional day care options, but the prices were so high it would have eaten up nearly all of his wife’s paycheck. 

His wife, who works as a transportation clerk for the Department of Defense, considered leaving her job to stay home with the baby, but that would have left the young family without enough income to save for a house. 

“We realized very quickly that if she quit, we wouldn’t make enough money to save away for long-term goals,” he said. 

They ended up relying on extended family for child care, mainly Danielle’s grandmother Gail “Moana” Thomas, who quit her job operating Arthur’s Lei Stand at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport to help care for her great-grandchildren.

Because of the high cost of day care, many families must weigh if it’s more beneficial for one parent to continue working or stay home, Zysman said. 

The average cost of day care statewide for children under 2 is $1,900 per month or about $23,000 per year, Zysman said. It is even more expensive in Honolulu. 

“It’s an impossible choice that folks have to make in our system right now,” she said. 

Ailene Moore, who is married to a Honolulu police officer, started a daycare in Kapolei after having kids of her own. Even though she had earned a certificate to become a pharmacy technician, she decided it would be too difficult to find child care with both parents working. 

Opening a daycare out of her home was a way to watch her children and still earn money. Word spread among her husband’s colleagues at HPD, and she started watching other officers’ children as well. 

“I stay home with the babies and I get income,” she said.

Moore operates from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and charges $1,200 a month for full-time care. But she also understands the nature of police work and tries to be flexible. She allows for late pickup but charges a late fee of $1 per minute. 

She also offers weekend care for $25 an hour, but will sometimes do it for less when parents say they can’t afford it. 

“I’m open 24/7,” she said. “It’s just a matter of different fee or payment.” 

Removing the burden of finding child care from police personnel could even improve public safety because it would relieve stress from officers who already work in a high-stakes field, said Aleeka Morgan, executive director of the Nurturing Wāhine Fund, a statewide nonprofit advocating for gender equity. 

“Deadly mistakes can happen in this particular field if people don’t feel supported or have good mental health,” she said, “and child care is a way to do that.”

Coverage of women’s issues is funded in part by a grant from the Frost Family Foundation.

See more survey details below: