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Attorney General candidate Anne Lopez questioned Tuesday about the best way to educate the public about kidnapping and sex trafficking.
Lopez also faced tough questions about 117 vacancies in the Attorney General’s Office before a joint hearing of the Senate Ways and Means and Judiciary committees.
She was the last of Gov. Josh Green’s cabinet nominees to face tough questions from state senators, who are responsible for confirming Green’s department heads.
State Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe-Iroquois Point) expressed his frustration to Lopez over what he called delays in law enforcement’s response in investigating the sex trafficking allegations.
“It would be an act of God before an officer from the Honolulu Police Department would come to investigate so-called sex trafficking,” Fevella told Lopez. “They don’t take sex trafficking as seriously as they do in Hawaii.”
The attorney general must also figure out how to teach Hawaiian children a universal signal to alert adults if they are being kidnapped or sex trafficked, Fevella said.
“Take it more seriously, how about that? — because we were talking about schools and principals, they, you know, get programs,” Fevella said. “But you have to take the initiative: go out there and educate people on how they can recognize you.”
Lopez said he takes concerns about sex trafficking seriously and will consider Fevella’s suggestion of a universal sign for children.
“I think it’s an important idea and I certainly wouldn’t rule it out,” Lopez told Fevella.
There also needs to be better collaboration between the Attorney General’s Office and HPD on sex trafficking, Fevella said.
“Do me a favor, try to talk to any HPD officer,” Fevella told Lopez. “The reason I bring this up, and it’s very serious, is because when someone calls 911 to report sex trafficking, and this is from officers that I talk to individually, most of the time they don’t react because the abuse comes from a member of the household”.
The senators also pressed Lopez and his staff on why they have 117 vacancies. López responded by proposing a solution that he called “direct contracting.”
“Our HR people in our department can be trained to determine if an applicant meets the minimum qualifications, and if they can, then we don’t have to wait for a list to come in from the HRD Department,” Lopez said. “We have the applicant. We know how to assess their qualifications and then we can offer them their jobs,” López said.
Younger employees are less interested in jobs at the Attorney General’s Office because of state benefits, Lopez said.
“I don’t think the majority of the younger generation is going to work in one place for 30 years,” Lopez said. “We need to be creative. And I think it’s important to do more workforce development, to allow people to move up vertically within the department. We’re doing a little bit of that right now.”
