Law Enforcement Standards Board Selects Its First Administrator
The board has two years to implement a range of measures including standardizing training for all Hawaii law enforcement.
Hawaii’s Law Enforcement Standards Board has selected Victor McCraw to be its first administrator, nearly six years after it was established.
McCraw is currently a consultant for a national police standards and training organization based in Idaho and a 30-year veteran of Arizona law enforcement.
His appointment is subject to accepting a conditional job offer unanimously approved by board members Friday following two final interviews. The other candidate was Gary Yamashiroya, an attorney in the office of the director of the Hawaii Department of Taxation and a veteran of the Chicago Police Department.
McCraw said that the role had the potential to be the most consequential of his career.
The administrator will manage day-to-day operations at the board and guide it through a daunting range of tasks including setting minimum qualifications for all law enforcement in Hawaii and establishing procedures by which the board can revoke officer certification.
McCraw’s appointment would culminate a protracted process that began in 2018 after the board was established by the Legislature, only to languish for years due to a lack of funding.
The board and the administrator face a deadline of July 1, 2026, to be fully operational, according to amended legislation passed this session and .
Hawaii has lagged behind most other states in establishing a peace officers standards and training agency, and the board will continue to face challenges with funding and staffing. Only the administrator and an assistant position are in the board’s current budget.
Current officers and new recruits will have to meet statewide training standards the board will establish by the target date to receive law enforcement certificiation. That training includes modules on mental health, first aid, use of force and crisis intervention, according to the statute.
Getting consensus and overcoming resistance from departments to the move is going to be crucial, McCraw said. “These are going to be some standards that everyone agrees on.鈥
He said the prospect of financial savings and organizational efficiencies from a statewide standard could help get buy-in from agencies.
The administrator will also be responsible for ensuring all law enforcement departments in the state consult the National Decertification Index when recruiting officers. The index lists the names of 54,000 officers fired for misconduct and is intended to prevent the rehiring of bad cops. The Law Enforcement Standards Board administrator will also be required to report officers fired in Hawaii to the database.
McCraw’s career experience lines up squarely with the administrator’s role at the standards board.
Half of his three-decade career with Arizona law enforcement was in a training role. He then went on to run Idaho’s equivalent of the standards board and he now sits on the board of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training and also manages the National Decertification Index.
McCraw said in his experience police standards and training boards typically fail because they don’t establish policies and procedures that translate the statute into goals for the organization.
Asked what he thought would be his greatest challenge in the first six months serving in the role if he was offered it, McCraw said, “Trust. Police officers hate two things. They hate change, and they hate the way things are.鈥
The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers of the standards board, arguing that statewide certification runs afoul of collective bargaining agreements and duplicates the national accreditation standards all four departments in Hawaii currently meet.
