A Honolulu Police Department officer who spent years quietly helping unhoused families and at-risk kids across West Oahu has become the first police officer in Hawaii to receive the U.S. Department of Justice's Hometown Hero award. Officer Roxanne Montalbo, an Aiea native who has served with HPD for about six years, was formally presented with the honor on July 14.
The recognition, first reported by Hawaii News Now, caps a career built around community policing rather than headline-grabbing arrests. Montalbo told the outlet she does not seek recognition or the spotlight, and credits her husband, children, parents, and church family for supporting her work. She is a devout Christian, according to the same report.
The award itself is new. The Department of Justice created the Hometown Hero award in 2026 as part of its Freedom 250 initiative, a nationwide program tied to the lead-up to America's 250th anniversary in which U.S. Attorneys' Offices recognize local law enforcement officers for embodying liberty, service, and civic responsibility, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Unlike many law enforcement honors focused on violent crime or physical rescue, the initiative explicitly elevates community policing, youth advocacy, and behavioral health de-escalation.
A Career Built on Small, Steady Interventions
Montalbo is assigned to HPD's District 8 Community Policing Team, which covers West Oahu communities from Ewa and Kapolei to Waianae, Makaha, and Kaena Point, according to the Honolulu Police Department. During 2025 alone, she organized 33 community events in the district, including school presentations, career days, and Coffee with a Cop sessions. In one case, HPD says she helped enroll a 12-year-old boy in middle school after discovering he had never attended school.
Her nomination for the national award came from HPD Acting Assistant Chief Gail Beckley, and the department's own account describes the July presentation as coming with official recognition from HPD Chief David Lazar. It was not the first time HPD singled her out. Back in May 2022, the department gave her a public Maika'i Loa commendation for a compassionate response to a couple in distress, per HPD.
Montalbo is also a member of HPD's Crisis Intervention Team, according to Hawaii News Now. She told the outlet that one encounter this year in Kona stuck with her: she met a young mother and her 3-year-old living on the beach, gave the mother clothes for herself and her child, and guided the pair to resources that ultimately helped them get into a shelter. Montalbo said she sees her role, in part, as being someone homeless people can talk to, and that connecting people with services is central to her work.
The Crisis Response System Behind Her Work
Montalbo's crisis intervention role sits inside a broader HPD apparatus built specifically for behavioral health calls. A dedicated three-officer Crisis Intervention Team unit, established within HPD's Major Events Division in November 2025, conducted roughly 121 specialized interventions through June 2026 and resolved more than 97% of them without force, relying instead on de-escalation and coordination with healthcare partners, per HPD. Department-wide, about 294 HPD officers had completed the 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team training course as of June, a course HPD runs four times a year alongside mandatory Mental Health First Aid training for every new recruit.
That infrastructure exists because the need is significant. HPD patrol officers responded to 2,163 mental health-related emergency calls across Oahu during 2025. The volume helps explain why the department has invested in training officers like Montalbo to handle crisis calls with a lighter touch than traditional enforcement.
Homelessness Trends Add Context to the Outreach
Montalbo's Kona encounter with an unhoused mother and toddler reflects a demographic shift showing up in the island's official homelessness count. Oahu's 2026 Point-in-Time Count recorded 4,539 people experiencing homelessness, a figure that included a 20% drop in unsheltered individuals and a 35% increase in sheltered individuals compared to 2024, according to the City and County of Honolulu.
But that overall improvement masks a troubling trend among families. The same count showed a 19% increase in homeless families with children, totaling 1,334 individuals in families, since 2024, and a 43% jump since 2022, as reported by Hawaii Public Radio. That rise in family homelessness underscores why grassroots outreach to unhoused parents and children, like the help Montalbo gave the mother and child she met on the beach, carries outsized significance on Oahu right now.
