Ex-Saipan policeman to be honored in Hawaii

Former CNMI Department of Public Safety officer Edward Maratita Jr. will be honored by the Honolulu Police Department, Hawaii Police Department, and Hawaii Drug Abuse Resistance Education Training Center for his accomplishments and dedication to the DARE training program, both with the Honolulu Police and the Los Angeles Police departments.

Maratita will be recognized in a ceremony at the Hawaii Police Department on the big island of Hawaii on July 2, 2005.

Maratita has been assisting the Honolulu police officers assigned to the Juvenile Services with the AKAMI program. It’s a counseling program for runways, drug abuses, child abuse and neglect, and violence.

In June 2002, the Honolulu Police Department selected Maratita as Training Mentor of the Year. He led his training cadres to Las Vegas, Nevada, to conduct trainings to various law enforcement agencies across the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico. The following year, June 2003, Maratita was again selected to lead the training cadre to Atlantic City, New Jersey. This was a year to remember as the Hawaii/CNMI training cadre place fourth as the best training cadre from the Pacific.

Maratita is the only officer among the training mentors worldwide to hold certification to instruct the Educators segment of any training curriculum.

Maratita was certified by the Los Angeles Unified School District in Los Angeles, California. With all his accomplishment, Maratita is the only law enforcement officer outside the United States certified to instruct any D.A.R.E. or Educators training. In addition, the officer holds a bachelor degree and had been a classroom teacher in the past, making it easy for the training centers not to hire teachers for the training sessions.

Furthermore, officer Maratita may have left the agency but he will be under the Department of Defense upon completion of his Air Force training. Military personnel under the Military Police unit can take part in any training so as long as he/she remains in their military unit and certified as mentor by a training center supervisor or director.

Maratita will have the honor and privileges to train and instruct at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, Kadena and Misawa Air Force Base, Japan, and Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. The officer’s duty assignment will be out of the Los Angeles Police Department/Western Regional training cadre.

Maratita left the Department of Public Safety-Saipan with great accomplishments and recognition from the state of Hawaii community as well as the Northern Marianas Islands.