Better tools for Maui Police Department since 2023 wildfires include new helicopter, rapid DNA machine

When Maui Police Department officers were searching for missing Lahaina man Paul Kasprzycki after the Aug. 8, 2023 wildfire, they wandered the trails he might have tried to use as an escape route and discovered the burnt remains of his custom bicycle.

Eventually, that clue helped them track down and identify Kasprzycki as the 101st victim of the wildfire, Police Chief John Pelletier said.

In the wake of the deadly disaster, Maui police and the Federal Bureau of Investigations had the grim task of paring down the long list of people reported missing and identifying the 102 victims who were confirmed to have died in the blaze. Hundreds of people were still missing nearly three weeks after the fire; today, two people remain on the list.

The wildfires led to the creation of the Morgue Identification and Notification Task Force, or MINT, and later to the establishment of the permanent Cold Case Unit that MPD launched in October 2023 to investigate unsolved homicides and missing persons cases. 

It’s one of the many changes that came as a result of the wildfires. In the two years since, Pelletier said the department has invested in more training and better equipment for both officers and dispatchers, as well as wellness programs.

“No doubt in my mind, we are a better prepared, more competent, capable law enforcement agency,” Pelletier told the Hawai’i Journalism Initiative on Friday.

Last week, the department also unveiled a new multi-mission helicopter equipped with night vision, a searchlight and infrared camera, a 250-gallon water bucket and seating for up to 10 people. On Tuesday, the chopper was called into action to notify people in remote areas about the tsunami warning. On Thursday, it helped battle a brush fire.

The Aug. 8 wildfires made it “very clear” that Maui County needed more air units, Pelletier said. Although the day the fires broke out was too windy for helicopters to fly, an additional unit could provide search-and-rescue capabilities, increase firefighting capabilities when conditions are safe to fly, and allow the Maui Police Department to use a chopper on demand instead of requesting the Maui Fire Department’s Air One, which often is busy fighting fires.

“I think that’s huge, because to see that speed and ability to put a piece of equipment (out) that could potentially save lives and property, that really, really matters,” Pelletier said.

Improving air capabilities is one of three new recommendations included in the police department’s final after-action report on the wildfires, which was released Thursday. The other two new recommendations, which add on to the 32 laid out in the initial report in February 2024, are hiring more dispatch staff and cross-training them for mass-casualty events, and working with the Maui Fire Department to establish a unified command structure for supervisors and above.

Of the 35 recommendations, all are either completed or in progress, MPD said in its updated report.

Pelletier said police worked with the fire department for more than a year to create an incident command management class for supervisors and managers of both agencies.

Drills for natural disaster evacuations and all types of critical incidents also are ongoing, he said. 

After the fires, the Maui Police Department received criticism for how it handled evacuations of Lahaina town, with survivors saying police barricaded roads. Pelletier responded at the time that the barricades had been put up to keep people from driving over downed power lines. 

When asked how the department had improved its training and approach to mass emergencies and evacuations, Pelletier said: “I think there’s more of an emphasis from everybody involved … and it’s all the more serious.”

To improve emergency evacuations, Pelletier said the department has worked with different community groups on creating evacuation routes, pointing to the example of a town hall that Council Member Nohe U‘u-Hodgins hosted in Pāʻia last summer to discuss fire evacuation plans with the police and fire departments, as well as the Maui Emergency Management Agency.

He pointed out that the county is also working to improve roads in Lahaina. County officials have been asking the Maui County Council for permission to buy more land to allow them to widen or connect roads that hindered evacuations during the wildfire. This week, the county Public Works Department will be working on a new 130-foot connection between the intersection of the eastern end of Aki and Kale streets to the existing western end of Aki Street on land the county recently acquired.

The connectivity and improvement of roadways through Lahaina is a major goal of the county’s long-term recovery plan.

In May, the county also launched real-time evacuation notifications on the Genasys Protect app, allowing users to view pre-determined evacuation zones, track live statuses and receive real-time notifications.

The police department also has tactical vehicles in each district equipped with breaching equipment that could break through barriers if needed, a recommendation of the after-action report. 

“It’s a learning process, and the more we do as far as the announcing and the warnings, the more we drill and we practice those, the better everybody gets,” Pelletier said.

Communication during the wildfire was also a major issue when cell service went down. First responders had to rely on their handheld or car radios on closed channels, according to post-disaster analysis reports.

Pelletier said the department is working to purchase an updated radio system this year that can operate not just with radio towers but also with Wi-Fi and cell service, provided it’s available, so that when they go into large structures like apartment buildings or hotels during an incident, they’ll still have coverage. The goal is to have redundancy in communication options, Pelletier said.

The department also is working on getting a new computer-assisted dispatch record management system for emergency dispatchers. Upgrading the system with new equipment and software that can handle large files is a goal of the after-action report, after dispatchers received over 4,500 calls for service on the day of the fire.

Other new equipment the department has acquired since the wildfires includes a rapid DNA machine that can identify bodies that are badly decomposed or difficult to identify. Pelletier said no other department in the state has this type of machine.

“Wellness” of department personnel is another area of new focus, with the expansion of police chaplaincy and other mental health and wellness programs.

“We want to make sure that we’re doing everything to ensure that our employees, both sworn and unsworn, are as holistically taken care of as possible,” Pelletier said.

*EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is the second in a four-part interview series with officials from the Maui Fire Department, Maui Police Department, Maui Emergency Management and Hawaiian Electric that will publish this week ahead of the two-year anniversary on Friday of the Lahaina and Upcountry wildfires. Tomorrow, the Hawai’i Journalism Initiative focuses on the Maui Emergency Management Agency.

Part 1 – Maui Fire Department: Two years after wildfires, Maui Fire Department’s changes to staffing, fleet, fire code aim to prevent another tragedy