Three Officers Honored By Kona Crime Prevention Committee

Three Hawai‘i Police Department officers were honored for their outstanding investigations and exemplary hard work by the Kona Crime Prevention Committee (KCPC) in the past three months. Officer Ryan Barrett was honored as Officer of the Month for December 2024, Officer Tyler Meno for January 2025, and Officer Elijah Won for February 2025.

Officer Ryan Barrett

Officer Barrett was recognized for his diligent efforts on a complicated fraud investigation in June 2024. Officer Barrett contacted a male victim on June 23, who reported that he had inadvertently dropped his wallet while in a business on Ali‘i Drive in Kailua-Kona two days earlier. The victim stated he did not realize he had lost his wallet until the 23rd, and by that point someone had charged more than $3,000 to his credit/debit card without his permission.

Officer Barrett immediately began investigating the fraudulent charges made to the credit/debit card, responding to several businesses in the Kailua-Kona area, obtaining and reviewing surveillance video footage as evidence. In the course of his investigation, Officer Barrett determined that all of the fraudulent charges to the victim’s credit/debit card were made by the same man and he shared the suspect’s description with other Kona patrol officers. 

Shortly after Officer Barrett told his fellow patrol officers to be on the lookout for the suspect, Officer Tyler Meno located a man matching the suspect’s description and contacted Officer Barrett. Responding to Officer Meno’s location, Officer Barrett positively identified the suspect and arrested him for the fraudulent use of a credit card.

In many criminal investigations, being able to identify and arrest the suspect within the first day is crucial. Through Officer Barrett’s determination and hard work he was able to quickly identify and arrest the suspect, who was subsequently charged with 12 felony, 3 misdemeanor, and 10 petty misdemeanor offenses with bail set at $64,000.

A member of the 94^th Recruit class, Officer Barrett joined the department in 2021. This is his first Officer of the Month award.

 

Officer Tyler Meno  

Officer Meno was recognized for his proactive efforts on an arson investigation in which he not only extinguished a vehicle fire, but also found and arrested the suspect.

In August 2024, Officer Meno responded to a reported vehicle fire in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Kona. Arriving on scene, he saw that the vehicle was fully engulfed in flames and was parked extremely close to an apartment building. Knowing that time was of the essence, Officer Meno used a fire extinguisher to douse most of the fire.

At the time of the incident, the cause of the fire was undetermined, however Officer Meno conducted a follow-up investigation. Upon reviewing surveillance video, he observed a Caucasian man pouring an unknown liquid substance, believed to be an accelerant, onto the top of the vehicle. The man then used a lighter to intentionally set the car on fire and fled the scene. Officer Meno was able to identify the suspect and subsequently arrested the man at his workplace, later charging him with second-degree arson.

Arson and fire-related calls are typically complicated and difficult to investigate. As a result, intent can be challenging to determine and suspects are rarely identified. However, due to Officer Meno’s efforts in this case, he was able to identify, arrest, and charge the suspect with a felony offense.

A seven-year veteran of the Hawai’i Police Department, this is Officer Meno’s second Officer of the Month award, having previously received the honor in 2020.

 

Officer Elijah Won

Officer Won was recognized for his investigative expertise during a drug investigation last autumn. While conducting area checks in Kailua-Kona during the early morning hours of September 23, 2024, Officer Won noticed a suspicious vehicle exit the parking lot of a big box store and make a right turn onto Loloku Street. After initially losing sight of the vehicle, he found the same vehicle a short time later crashed into a rock wall fronting a business on Kaiwi Street. Officer Won observed a man unsteady on his feet attempting to walk away from the driver’s side of the car. When asked, the man told Officer Won that the vehicle was his. As he ordered the man back to the vehicle, Officer Won smelled a strong aroma of marijuana emanating from the driver of the crashed vehicle and that the driver appeared to have red, glassy eyes. The driver also refused to participate in a standardized field sobriety test. In addition, Officer Won observed a woman standing next to the front passenger door, shining a light into the car as if she was looking for something.

Officer Won found numerous clear zip baggies containing marijuana on the ground near the driver’s door of the vehicle, which weighed a total of 2.59 pounds. He also recovered several clear zip baggies of “shrooms”, an illegal substance known as psilocybin, which weighed a total of 1.6 pounds.

Patting down the male driver prior to arresting the man, Officer Won located a baggie containing a white powdery substance in the man’s front shorts pocket, which later tested positive as 15 grams of cocaine.

As a result of Officer Won’s keen observations and swift actions, two individuals involved in the possession and distribution of a significant amount of illegal narcotics were apprehended. The male driver was charged with a dozen drug offenses and his bail was set at $155,000.

A six-year veteran of the department, this is the seventh time Officer Won has been honored as Officer of the Month.