Employees Choose Design of Police Department Flag

A newly designed Hawaii Police Department flag will make its debut in Saturday’s Merrie Monarch parade.

The flag’s design was chosen through a vote by police department employees in a contest open to all sworn and civilian personnel. The winning entry was designed by Danielle Medeiros, a clerk in the police records department.

Medeiros said the flag’s red, white and blue colors are symbolic of America, with the majority of the background color being blue to represent the police department. Five stars at the right represent the department’s five core values of integrity, professionalism, compassion, teamwork and community satisfaction.

The words “Serving and protecting with aloha,” summarize the department’s vision statement.

The idea to create an official flag for the police department came from Pudding Lassiter, former chair of the Hawaiʻi County Police Commission.

Chief Harry S. Kubojiri said he left the selection of the flag’s design to the employees and purposely abstained from looking at any of the designs until after the contest committee chose the finalists, a statement from the department said. Even then, the chief chose not to vote in the contest because he wanted the employees to have complete control over which flag would represent their department.

The flag will be displayed at department ceremonies and community events.