Episode 4 - Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE)

In this episode of Hawaii Conservation Kuleana, DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla shares his personal journey, from growing up in Kalihi to leading Hawaii’s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement. Chief Redulla provides an insider’s look into the vital work of DOCARE officers, their role in protecting Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources, and the challenges they face on the front lines of conservation law enforcement.

Learn about the critical issues facing the division, including illegal fishing practices like lay nets and hunting violations, and hear firsthand how DOCARE officers enforce both state and federal conservation laws to protect Hawaii’s unique environment.

With his deep understanding of the balance between cultural practices and modern conservation laws, Redulla discusses the importance of respecting wildlife and educating the public on how to be good stewards of the land and sea. Join us for this insightful conversation about the kuleana we all share in protecting Hawaii’s precious natural heritage.

Transcript

Episode 4 DOCARE

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Dan Dennison: Aloha and welcome to Hawaii Conservation Kuleana, brought to you by Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources. I'm Dan Dennison.  

Patti Jette: And I'm Patti Jette. We're here to explore conservation issues from land to sea with expert insights and stories from the field. 

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Chief Jason Redulla: If you look at a conservation officer, a park ranger, a forest ranger, a marine patrol officer, a police officer, sometimes teacher, sometimes counselor, sometimes even a nurse and a medic, and you roll it all in one that's what a DOCARE officer is. 

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Dan: In this episode, we explore the role of our division of conservation and resources enforcement, also known as DOCARE. 

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Patti: Aloha. Today we have DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla, thank you for joining us. 

Jason: Thank you for having me.  

Patti: So just to get started, tell us a little bit about your background, your ohana, your early life. 

Jason: Sure. So I was born and raised here in Honolulu, Hawaii. Grew up in Kalihi to a family of five, so there was my mom, my dad and three sons. I'm actually son number two, and I have a twin brother who is also in law enforcement. You know, I had a fairly average childhood, you know, I went to school at Kamehameha, graduated in 1990, you know, throughout my childhood I was interested in law enforcement and military stuff, and so in my senior year of high school, I actually joined the Air Force and decided that I was going to do that rather than go to college. The GI Bill was something at that time, my parents didn't have a whole lot of money to send us to college, so I decided I was gonna go to join the military, use the GI Bill, and go to college afterwards. But this little thing called Operation Desert Storm kicked off at that time, and suddenly I was in the wartime Air Force, so I had to deal with that for a little while. I was stationed in the east coast, the west coast and in the Republic of Korea, and after four years of active duty, I decided to get out. Went into the reserve for a little while, went to college at Honolulu Community College in their administration of justice program, began working full time as a security supervisor at Waikele Shopping Center, which was brand new at the time. And then in 1997 decided I wanted a government job, and so I began working for the state, first at the University of Hawaii in what was known as the campus security department at the time. And then after that, in 1999 I joined the state sheriffs assigned to the governor's detail. I was bodyguard to Governor Ben Cayetano and his wife for a couple of years, and then I spent a couple years in patrol at the state capitol. And then in 2004 I transferred to DOCARE as an officer, and been in DOCARE ever since. April will make 21 years in DOCARE. Altogether I have 28 years of service with the state right now,  

Patti: Wow. Imua.

Jason: Thank you. 

Dan: Jason, How has your background influenced your sense of kuleana for the natural and cultural resources that DLNR has pledged to protect and perpetuate? 

Jason: It's a great question. So I grew up, my my dad was a fisherman, and so my dad used to take us fishing, and so from a young child, I learned about what it was to be a fisherman in Hawaii, the importance of taking only what you need, of identifying the fish before you take it, to make sure that it's a legal take. And in fact, I have a very fond memory of my godfather actually laying out fish that he had caught in a net, laying it out on the sand at Makua Beach, and making me and my brother identify all of the fish that was laid out on the sand. With that past experience and the teachings of both my dad and my godfather, Iʻm honored to say that today I get to perpetuate that In my daily work here at DOCARE. So it really has shaped who I've become as a individual, but also as a civil servant who's charged with the protection of our natural resources. 

Dan: I know your job's always busy, busy. Do you ever have time to still go fishing? 

Jason: You know, very rarely, but I do go fishing from time to time. You know, I've been lucky enough to take my nephew out with me to show him and teach him the things that I was taught at his age. But also, you know, it's good recreation. So I do go from time to time, probably not as much as I probably should, though. 

Patti: So DOCARE is one of the more, I'd say, forward facing divisions here at DLNR and so many people in our community interact with DOCARE officers. Tell us a little bit more about the division and the responsibilities involved in in DOCARE. 

Jason: Sure. So we have about 120 or so employees statewide right now. We do have a couple of vacancies that will be filling here in the near future. You know, we have over a ten million budget in our division, primarily for payroll, but also for operational expenses. We have a vehicle fleet of over 100 vehicles and about 20 watercraft statewide. So it's a very large division. It's one of the larger in the department. If you look at a conservation officer, a park ranger, a forest ranger, a marine patrol officer, a police officer, sometimes teacher, sometimes counselor, sometimes even a nurse and a medic, and you roll it all in one that's what a DOCARE officer is. So it's a very unique job. It's one of the more popular jobs in state civil service. There's never a shortage of interested people who apply when we have openings.  

Dan: Let's talk a little more about that. Over the last couple of years, you've had two DOCARE academies and about what 65 new officers have have joined your ranks. How has that helped your your coverage and just your presence out in the public and in places where people would actually see you often? 

Jason: Great question. So since 2018 when we've had the DOCARE Academy established, we've had one lateral Academy and three entry level academies. And with that, we've probably brought in close to about 80 or 90 new employees who have filled our positions since then. Now that's a very big increase in staff. Prior to 2018 we were pretty struggling, and that's because we hired, generally people who had prior law enforcement experience, because we didn't have a training academy, and therefore no pathway for someone without experience to come into the department and be a DOCARE officer. Prior to that, you had to be a prior law enforcement officer, have the training, and then come in and we would just give you on the job training, and then you go out on the field and do your work. So luckily, we have the academy in place. We have this increase in officer presence now throughout the state, and so we've, we've heard from the public that they see our officers. They see them out there night and day when they least expect it. And they least expect it because they've not really seen us. Our numbers haven't been very strong prior to 2018. You know, oftentimes people refer to us as the unicorns - the DOCARE officers were mythical creatures that they oftentimes did not see and were mythical because, you know, again, nobody saw us. So now we've taken away that reputation, and have become more visible, more exposed to the public, people know we're out there night and day. Could you always use more? We could always use more officers. There's always no shortage of the work out there, you know. And as I explained earlier, DOCARE officers have a very broad mission from mauka to makai three miles out. And so there's always a need for DOCARE officers somewhere in our area of responsibility. 

Dan: And I think we need to make it clear that DOCARE officers are fully sworn law enforcement officers with all the police powers that a Honolulu Police Department officer would have. But on top of that, they have to know a heck of a lot more. In addition to, you know all the city and county and state laws, they have to know all the conservation laws and administrative rules that they're charged with enforcing.  

Jason: That's very much correct. When you think about a police officer here in Hawaii, generally, they're enforcing the penal code, the traffic code, the county ordinances that apply in their county, and that's a lot of stuff. But when you look at DOCARE officers, not only do we enforce the penal code, the traffic code and county ordinances, but we also enforce the Hawaii Administrative Rules, Title 13, we enforce all of the Title 12 statutes and the Hawaii Revised Statutes that pertain to conservation and resources, the laws that pertain to dangerous weapons, drugs, Chapter 6E and 6K that deal with historic preservation. So it's a wide, very broad range of rules and statutes that we enforce. But additionally, DOCARE officers are federally deputized as Federal officers under our joint enforcement agreement with NOAA. And so in addition to the state rules and regulations, we also have responsibilities to enforce federal law, like the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, on the Lacey act, those kinds of things as well. 

Patti: Wow, that's a lot. In all of that, what are some of the most important or continuing issues facing the division? 

Jason: Sure. So probably the most prolific problem that we have is the use of illegal lay nets. So lay net fishing is prominent throughout the state. People who use them illegally is a huge problem. And the reason why it's a huge problem is because these lay nets, when they're used improperly, they kill everything, and so they're highly regulated. You have to register them. You have to have the proper tags on them. You can only use them during daylight hours. You can only use them in certain areas around the state. And so they're very highly regulated. In addition to being regulated by the size of the eye, the height and length of the net and those kinds of things, when people use them improperly, these nets don't discriminate. They kill everything, and that's why there are rules that you have to check your net two hours into the lay and remove them four hours after the lay, and they can't be used for 24 hours in state waters after that. These things are a huge problem, and if you look at our evidence room in our various offices, you're going to see they're loaded with lay nets because we have so many problems with them. In addition to that, you know, there's a lot of illegal hunting going on. You know, unfortunately, there seems to be a younger generation of hunters who seem to have a thought process of, I can roam wherever I want. I can hunt wherever I want, irregardless of whose property I'm on, or whether I have the proper permission to be on that property. You know, unfortunately, these kinds of conflicts have resulted, quite frankly, in unnecessary deaths. We did have that homicide out in the West Oahu around the same time last year, and it's really sad and unnecessary, if people would just follow the law and do the right things when it comes to ethical hunting and fishing in Hawaii, 

Dan: Whether it be illegal lay nets or illegal hunting, what's the most common way DOCARE officers find out about this stuff  - from tips or just being out on patrol or a combination thereof? 

Jason: So it's a combination thereof. But quite frankly, because when we work, we only have a certain number of officers working at any given time, and so we do depend on the public to be our extension of eyes and ears to report problems and violations to us. And they can do that a number of ways. They can call our office, 643-DLNR is a state hotline, or you can use the smartphone tip app called DLNR Tip, load that to your smartphone, and you can send in tips anonymously to us. So it's a combination of phone calls to our office or using tips through the tip app that people report stuff to us. And then, of course, sometimes our officers will pick up cases on beat while they're out on patrol, or people will walk up to them and tell them stuff on patrol. But predominantly it's by phone call or through the tip app.

Dan: Let's digress for a moment. As we're taping this, we're just coming off of a situation where a couple of Hollywood actresses were really vilified for posting a photo, or, I'm sorry, some video of one of them touching or actually looked like she was petting a Hawaiian green sea turtle. And I guess if you could help clarify that, in and of itself, is not necessarily against the law, it's it's not terribly culturally respectful. And there are guidelines that DLNR and NOAA and Fish and Wildlife Service have promulgated to to kind of guide people about safe viewing distances from from turtles and other marine wildlife. So how do you get through to people with all the social media noise that's going on to really help them understand not only the rules, but when the application of the rules is warranted?

Jason: Sure, so you know, a lot of times when you look at social media posts, they don't tell you the entire story. And so we're left to try to figure out what's going on here, the who, what, when, where, why and how. And oftentimes the post itself doesn't give us that complete picture, and so we're missing a lot of the context of what has occurred. And so specific to this past turtle social media post involving the actress, we learned later that the incident actually occurred two years ago. That's not something we would have known just by the social media posts. And so when people do report these kinds of things to the department, we would ask them to provide us actionable information, tell us who, what, when, where, why and how. These kinds of key pieces of information help us get the entire story, or as much of the story as possible to help us investigate further. Without that kind of information, quite frankly, a lot of the information is not actionable, and we can't really further an investigation without these key points. And so, you know, we just ask people to look at the social media posts and try to understand that we need more information. You just can't get the stuff straight from a post. You have to kind of look further, and that's what helps us to to investigate. Now, specific to this particular incident, the actual touching of a turtle, some people may say that's a violation. But when you look at the various laws that regulate marine mammals or wildlife in general, usually what we're looking for is what's called “take.” “Take” can mean many different things. They include things like capturing, killing, pursuing, harassing, you know, those kinds of hunting, those kinds of things. Things touching the animal, in and of itself, may not necessarily be a take. That's why we need to look at it in the totality of circumstances to figure out whether there is evidence to so to believe that the person has engaged in a take. And so that's kind of why we need the fullest information possible, because sometimes even the officer cannot identify whether a take has occurred or not. We may have to refer that to an expert like one of our biologists or a scientist to help us understand whether the behavior is, in fact, a take or not. So that's why we need more information, actionable information, to help us.  

Patti: And I think we can say definitively that it's very, very culturally insensitive to even touch one of our indigenous animals here. And that actually leads into a question I had for you about culture and the law and where those two intersect and don't intersect, and how do you manage that with, say, fishing regulations, where someone says fishing is my cultural right to practice, but yet we have these state laws that are on top of all of that. 

Jason: So certainly here in Hawaii, we have a constitutionally protected right that protects native gathering rights, and certainly that of that affects the way we have to do our jobs. With that in mind, if you look at the old ways of ancient Hawaii with the kapu system that was in place. And you look at our laws today, many of our laws and regulations are based upon the kapu system of old. You know, Hawaiians, while they didn't have Western science, they had their own knowledge and scientific expertise, and they knew things about aquaculture, about the way that the fish around them spawned and whatnot. They were so in tune to nature. They knew this knowledge, and as a result, they implemented their own restrictions to the kapu system to protect these resources. Likewise, here we are in the 21st century in the state of Hawaii, where we have a westernized culture with westernized science. Yet again, many of our rules are influenced by the kapu system of old. And so this is not a new thing, and people should understand that culturally, yes, we would ask them not to mess with our wildlife. You know, you wouldn't go to Yellowstone Park and go touch bison on the side of the road. So what makes you think it's okay to come to our state and touch our wildlife? Don't do that. Not only is it culturally insensitive, you may be breaking one of our laws.

Dan: Chief, what have you found challenging and conversely, invigorating about the job that you do?  

Jason: You know, it's, there's never a dull moment in DOCARE. There's always something going on. And sometimes things can get pretty exciting. I mean, you know, we are a law enforcement agency. We are responsible for many different areas, including state parks and small boat harbors, and these kinds of facilities are microcosms of our general society. And so the things you find in general society, like property crime and crimes against people, they happen in our facilities as well. When I was a patrolman, it was always kind of exhilarating to respond to a hot call, because you want to get there, and you want to catch these bad guys. From a response and just the broad amount of various incidents and violations that we respond to, you know, it can be quite exciting sometimes. In addition to all of that, DOCARE is just a dynamic working place. There's always something going on, like I said, things are never the same every day. There's always some kind of challenge or some kind of issue that pops up on the radar that needs our attention. So it can be very challenging, but can also be very exhilarating at times. 

Dan: And Patti mentioned this earlier, DOCARE is one of the few divisions within DLNR that you actually provide support for virtually all the other divisions in some fashion. 

Jason: That's correct. So you know, we're the one division that we don't make the rules like other divisions do, we have to enforce their rules, and so because of that, we touch every other office in DLNR. And quite frankly, we're often looked at as as the state police agency, many times, because we have officers statewide. When there are incidents that occur statewide, for example, like the TMT protests in 2019 it was DOCARE that took a very lead role in a very publicly exposed role during that entire situation. You know, even though we are conservation minded and our mission is conservation minded, oftentimes we do have to play the role as as a state law enforcement officer and do things that we may traditionally not do.  

Dan: Iʻm glad you mentioned the TMT protests because, as you know, I was there with you. And the one thing that I've said often and having videotaped and documented a lot of what DOCAREʻs involvement was up on Mauna Kea, the one thing that really struck me is the care and the compassion that every single one of your officers employed when they were dealing with people who, in some cases, they were arresting their auntie or uncle. And I thought that was remarkable. I've covered law enforcement for decades, and I don't think I've ever seen a police force that showed that kind of mellowness, I guess, for lack of a better word. 

Jason: You know and I appreciate that you pointed that out. I think people need to remember that our law enforcement officers, especially here in Hawaii. We're from the community. Many of us have lived here all our lives, or have lived here for a very long period of time, and so weʻre of the community. And oftentimes, you're right, Hawaii is such a small place that you end up dealing with your relatives and friends sometimes and sometimes we're on opposite sides of the issue. What we've told our officers is that you know when you deal with people you know, or family members, if it's possible, make sure you tell somebody so we don't put you in an awkward position. But also treat everybody with fairness and compassion, because when you treat people fairly, no matter what happens, you can at least go home at the end of your shift with a clear mind, knowing that you treated everyone the same. Fair, everything was okay, and no one has any right to say anything bad. And so I think people have to remember that. And lastly, I'll just say, you know, oftentimes people look at law enforcement and they think that, you know, maybe we're robots and we don't have emotions and feelings. That's absolutely not true. Our officers are human beings, just like everyone else, and we have feelings, but we have to be professional when we're at work, and we have to put those feelings aside sometimes and do our job and what is expected of us as civil servants.  

Patti: So at this point, we'd just like to open the floor to you. And is there anything else that you want our listeners to know about the division, about yourself, and just the role here in Hawaiʻi with the DLNR?  

Jason: Yeah, thanks for that. I think, I think what I'll just say is that I think people should understand that there are a dedicated group of men and women who are out there every day trying to protect Hawaiʻi's natural, cultural, historical and recreational resources. This is an important job. It's a hard job sometimes. We can't do it by ourselves. We need the community and all the people here in Hawaiʻi, both residents and visitors alike, to help us, please follow the laws. Please do things that are pono and correct. And if you're going to take our resources, we would just ask that you follow the regulations and take only what you need and take them in compliance with law. And if you do that, our resources will be here for generations to come. 

Dan: In that regard, over the past year, thanks to some additional funding from the legislature and your new recruits, you've been able to stand up marine patrol units on all islands, talk a little bit about that and how valuable that is for our marine resources and marine enforcement. 

Jason: Sure, so you know, when you look at the state of Hawaiʻi, we're surrounded by water, and we're really the only state that's surrounded by water, and when you look at DOCARE's posture from a decade ago till now, it's unfortunate that we haven't really invested a whole lot of time in our marine law enforcement capabilities. In addition to ongoing incidents in state waters, we did have a problem several years ago with monk seals mysteriously being killed throughout the state, and so the legislature paid attention to that. They were very concerned, and what they did was they provided us with positions and funding to create focused marine patrol units in every county in the state. And so right now, we have 12 officers statewide, that's three in each county, who are focused as the marine patrol unit in that county, and so the majority of their work time, will be out on our watercraft, patrolling our near shore state waters for violations and to help protect our state's natural resources that are aquatic in nature, but also to enforce our recreational boating laws and to maintain a law enforcement presence in state waters.

Dan: As we know, government agencies and law enforcement agencies in particular, get a fair amount of grief and criticism from from the public. Is this one of the things that you're doing that you think will engender more positive public perceptions of DOCARE? 

Jason: Absolutely, I think this will help us increase our exposure. You know, increase our visibility statewide, especially on the water, because, like I said, there hasn't really been a full time law enforcement presence on the water. When you look at the Coast Guard, you look at the the State Department of Law Enforcement’s Harbor Police, they're all limited. We need to have more law enforcement out on our state waters, and with the help of the legislature, we've made that happen. And so we do think having this more full time presence on the water will not only increase our visibility, but it'll help us do our job and protect those resources. 

Patti: So the final question we've been asking all of our administrators this, and you know, with your background that we've covered, you could work in a lot of different places. Why DLNR? 

Jason: That is a great question. DLNR is a very diverse, exciting place to work. The day, every day you come to work, it's different. And because of that diversity and what we do, it can be exciting. It can be fun. I've gone to places in the course of work that are on people's bucket lists, and I get to experience that on a daily basis. And so when you look at being able to be in our natural beauty, of all these beautiful places that we're responsible for, the diversity of the work, the very broad range of things that you get to do. It's just a great place to work, and I can't really think of anything I'd rather be doing than being here in the Department of Land and Natural Resources. And I'm glad to be here, and I'm very lucky and honored to be here.

Dan: Mahalo chief Jason radula of the DLNR division of conservation resources enforcement for joining us today. And thank our listeners for joining us as well. Next time, we'll take a look at the DLNR State Division of Historic preservation. For now, I'm Dan Dennison 

Patti: And I'm Patti Jette.

Dan: Our theme music is provided by Kawika Kahiapo.  

Patti: Thanks for tuning in to Hawaii Conservation. Kuleana. A hui hou! 

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