Police Detective Simeona receives Haweo Award
For his leadership overseeing Hawaii Police Department’s East Hawaii Special Enforcement Unit, Detective Keith Simeona was honored with the Haweo Award during a ceremony held at Hawaii County Council chambers in Hilo last week.
In addition to his leadership, Simeona, of the East Hawaii Criminal Investigation Section, was lauded for his investigative skills and mentorship of prior and current members of the SEU.
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Part of the department’s East Hawaii Criminal Investigation Division, SEU is comprised of three patrol officers and a dedicated detective responsible for the criminal apprehension of perpetrators in high-profile cases. In addition, SEU works with patrol, community policing, criminal investigations, and the vice unit on various other tasks involving efforts to keep the community safe.
Simeona has led the SEU for about two years. Every six months he gets newly assigned patrol officers that he is responsible for managing, training, organizing and supervising. Simeona is a former SEU officer himself, having worked in the unit while being assigned to South Hilo as a patrol officer.
In the last six months, Simeona and his team have been responsible for the apprehension of four individuals who were wanted for a total of 513 criminal complaints. The four were wanted for various felonies, including multitude property crimes, firearms and drug offenses, as well as crimes of violence.
One of the fugitives was wanted for multiple drug offenses after police discovered the individual was distributing pounds of methamphetamine. In addition to this criminal activity, this person was known to use firearms in order to facilitate the drug dealing, protection and collection of proceeds from those sales.
After fleeing from police several times in different vehicles to avoid apprehension, the fugitive was taken into custody after an extensive effort by the SEU team spearheaded by Simeona.
The Haweo Award was presented by the County Council’s Parks and Recreation and Public Safety Committee, which recognizes county police and fire department personnel who go above and beyond the call of duty. Haweo, for which this award is named, means to glow or to be radiant.
