As a community member and police officer, the wildfires in Maui in August 2023 had an impact on Marvin Tevaga in more ways than one. Alongside his colleague, Officer Zachary Kamaka, Tevaga will deliver a keynote address at FRA’s 14th Police Recruitment and Retention Summit, held August 4-6 in Orlando, where he’ll share his personal story of losing his family home to the fire, the officers’ shared experiences supporting their community through a natural disaster, and the impacts on the Maui Police Department.
The Lahaina fire changed Marvin Tevaga’s life in an instant. A husband and father of five, he had to support his family through the loss of their home. As a police officer at the Maui Police Department, he also felt a responsibility to help his community.
To handle the pressure, he took it one day at a time and focused on compartmentalizing his personal life and professional life.
“In law enforcement, we wear multiple hats,” he said. “When I was at home, I was a father. And that's all I did; I just worried about my kids and my wife. And when I was at work, I focused on the task that was at hand.”
Finding the balance in the different hats he had to wear was critical to getting through it, added Tevaga. Realizing he and his family needed time to reset and acclimate themselves to their new normal, Tevaga took a few months off from work. “I realized I needed to take time off for myself and my family,” he said. “And then also recognizing when I needed to return to a sense of normalcy and, for me, that was getting back to work.”
Sharing his experience opens the conversation about the need for law enforcement professionals to prioritize their mental health, something that isn’t talked about enough, said Tevaga.
“Something that people rarely talk about is focusing on your mental health and seeking guidance from other people— it’s so important.”
During their presentation, Tevaga and Kamaka will discuss the impacts the Lahaina fire had on the Maui police department, how they struggled in their recruitment and retention efforts, and the strategies they have found to be successful to achieve organizational success.
Almost a year after the Lahaina fire, there’s been a lot of valuable lessons learned from the tragedy, said Tevaga, which he and Kamaka look forward to sharing with conference attendees in August.
“This was not the first natural disaster that our country has faced, and won't be the last,” he said. “There's that saying that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So, we have to come up with a plan.”
Tevaga and Kamaka will present their keynote address, Police Recruiting After a Natural Disaster: Overcoming Challenges and Service with Aloha, at 8:55a.m. on Monday, August 5 during the The 14th Police Recruitment and Retention Summit in Orlando, Fla. Food and beverage are included with registration. For more information, including the full agenda, list of speakers, and registration information, click here.