Craig Hanaumi Service Award

Officer Hanaumi’s primary function at the department is to conduct community engagement. He performs a variety of functions involving the community and he by far exceeds expectations in this category. He is probably the most well-known face/person at the department. He has a social media presence through his Instagram account and he has been featured on multiple media outlets. Officer Hanaumi organizes a teen pizza feed every month at the Lake Hills Boys and Girls Club. He also participates and organizes serving a dinner at the Salvation Army once a month. Sergeant Jones participated with Officer Hanaumi at both of these locations and has seen how well received Officer Hanaumi is by the participants and staff members. It is clear people greatly appreciate Officer Hanaumi and this reflects positively on our department.

Officer Hanaumi is also involved in Bellevue’s skate camps. He helped out during their Winter and Spring skate camps as well as the skate camps during the summer. Officer Hanaumi interacts with the staff and youth at the camps and does a great job making a positive connection to law enforcement. He helps the participants, but also participates himself. Officer Hanaumi has been widely recognized for his involvement with the skate board community.

Officer Hanaumi regularly provides tours of the police department. One of the tours involved high school students from Japan. He has also provided tours to prospective officers and youth in the community.

Officer Hanaumi is very involved with a boxing gym (Ring Sports United). The gym offers a program for at risk youth to get involved and train to box. The idea of the program is to provide teens with an outlet and alternative to criminal activity. Officer Hanaumi has been a crucial advocate for this program and has helped get juveniles involved. He will often provide the youths with rides to the gym in order for them to participate. One of the juveniles wrote a letter describing the impact Officer Hanaumi and the program have had on him. In his letter he writes:

“Since I joined the Ring Sports United Boxing Gym 8 months ago, Officer Craig has continued to be an incredibly positive influence in my life…I thank Officer Craig and hope to have him in my life forever.”

Officer Hanaumi was featured in a show called In the Know. The show detailed Officer Hanaumi’s involvement in the community and outreach efforts. The video was viewed more than 10.3 million times and shared more than 139,000 times. People from around the world have been positively impacted by Officer Hanaumi’s story. One person wrote to Officer Hanaumi the following post:

“Dear Craig, Just wanted to say that I’m a fan of the things you do, on and off work. You inspire me to work hard and get into the police force in the near future! My dream is to work with youths and people in the community,”

There are multiple comments and posts for Officer Hanaumi. People from other parts of the world and people from all kinds of backgrounds. Officer Hanaumi does so much in the community it is difficult to capture it all.

In December, Officer Hanaumi coordinated a “chief for a day” event for a child with several serious health concerns. The child’s mom commented about how much the experience meant to her son and how he will be telling people about it for years to come. Officer Hanaumi participated in our department’s Shop with a Cop. He helped identify youth in need to receive the gift cards for the shopping event. He also attended the event and connected with the families involved. at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Summit.

Officer Hanaumi will often use his own time to better himself and advocate for the police department. He will flex his schedule to make events and rarely misses an opportunity to connect with citizens. Officer Hanaumi’s outreach work in the community, specific to Bellevue’s youth, has been a huge benefit to the community and the department.

Officer Hanaumi volunteers to assist with hiring/recruiting. Officer Hanaumi already was doing a lot of recruitment with his media and social media presence and his involvement in the community.

Officer Hanaumi manages the BPD recruiting Facebook page, follows up with potential applicants, and facilitates events and information sessions for prospective officers. One of our current new hires expressed that one of the reasons he chose to work at BPD was because of the outreach work we do. Officer Hanaumi does an excellent job finding out information regarding criminal activity. He also is the go to officer when trying to identify or locate potential suspects.

Officer Hanaumi has 15 years of police experience. He has a deep understanding about policing through community engagement. Officer Hanaumi does an excellent job using his skills, training, and experience to be an effective officer for the department. He has a strong working knowledge of RCW, case law, and our police procedures. He is constantly improving himself through training and experiences. Officer Hanaumi has done a great job bringing Jiu-Jitsu skills to our training.

Officer Hanaumi uses his skills and talents to engage with the community. and has organized jiu-jitsu outreach/training sessions. The purpose was to connect with other law enforcement members and bring members of the community to the department to learn about the department and jiu-jitsu. The training was very well received. Officer Hanaumi also teaches a weekly self-defense class at the Crossroads Community Center. In April, Officer Hanaumi taught a women’s self-defense class for our Muslim community at the Muslim Association of Puget Sound.

Officer Hanaumi has done an excellent job fostering partnerships in the martial arts community. These partnerships help BPD with recruiting, and they help BPD and law enforcement in general build trust.

Officer Hanaumi was featured in a national TV program called, “In The Know,” that outlined his unique community and outreach efforts.  This video was viewed more than 10.3 million times and shared more than 139,000 times.  He was also featured on NBC’s Today Show.

In recognition of the high standard Officer Hanaumi has set, we have renamed the Platinum Service Award the Craig Hanaumi Bellevue Police Foundation Award.  And appropriately, Officer Hanaumi is the first recipient.