SHOPO Elections End In Shake-up For Union Leadership … Robert Cavaco was elected to be the state police union’s next president and will take over for Malcolm Lutu next month.
The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers will be under new leadership beginning next year following the police union’s election, which concluded last week.
Robert Cavaco, the union’s current vice president, beat out Don Faumuina, the current secretary, to become the next SHOPO president after voting ended on Dec. 9. He will take the seat of Malcolm Lutu whose four-year term as president ends at the end of the month.
Cavaco, a lieutenant who has spent 21 years in the Honolulu Police Department’s Traffic Division and 19 years as a SHOPO official, ran on a platform of lowering union dues, taking a more cautious approach to political endorsements and increasing pay for officers across the state through contract negotiations.
