Twenty Hawai‘i Island residents were saved by tourniquets donated to the Hawai‘i County Police Department (HPD) by the Spirit of Blue Foundation.

Spirit of Blue Foundation executive director Ryan Smith visited HPD headquarters in Hilo yesterday to present an oversized check totaling $38,188.16, symbolizing the donation value amount of 492 tourniquets, their holsters, and a new defensive tactics training suit that the Foundation has provided to HPD since 2020.

A dozen of the officers who have saved lives using tourniquets attended the check presentation ceremony, as did volunteer Police Chaplain Renee Godoy who helped facilitate the grant from Spirit of Blue Foundation.

HPD was one of only 35 agencies nationwide to receive the Spirit of Blue grant in July 2020.  Since then there have been 20 lives saved by Hawai‘i Police Department officers using tourniquets in various cases, ranging from animal attacks to assaults. In 2024, Spirit of Blue donated 50 additional tourniquets to outfit newly-trained officers.

HPD Photo