OHS’s primary responsibility is to enhance Hawai‘i’s security preparedness and resilience in an integrated, synergistic, relevant, proactive, flexible, cost-effective, full-spectrum effort across all domains to prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to, and recover from attacks, natural disasters, and emerging threats. OHS has four programmatic functions: fusion center, planning and operations, interoperability, and grants management.
Homeland Security Administrator, State of Hawai‘i Office of Homeland Security
Since 2021, Frank Pace has been leading the Hawai`i Office of Homeland Security (OHS) as its Administrator. His role encompasses oversight of planning and operations, grants management, the Hawaii State Fusion Center, and statewide interoperable communications. During his tenure, Frank has overseen the development and implementation of key strategies in State Homeland Security and Targeted Violence Prevention, as well as the enhancement of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection.
Notably, Frank has directed an extensive expansion of the Hawaii State Fusion Center’s operational capabilities. He successfully led a statewide initiative to combat disinformation and improve information transparency, proving particularly crucial during the Maui wildfires in 2023. These efforts reflected the dedication of the entire OHS team to strengthening Hawai`i’s security and resilience.
Frank’s background in law enforcement spans over twenty years, including service with the Phoenix Police Department, where he held essential leadership roles in Homeland Defense, Investigations, and Intelligence. He was a driving force in building cooperative relationships between the department and academic circles, as well as in broadening partnerships between the public and private sectors. Frank further contributed to the law enforcement field as a policy advisor and project manager at the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. There, he led project teams collaborating with INTERPOL, law enforcement agencies, and non-governmental organizations across Europe, focusing on security research initiatives funded by the European Union.
Kevin Baggs
Director, Hawai‘i State Fusion Center
Kevin Baggs is currently serving as the Director of the Hawaii State Fusion Center. In this role Kevin oversees the fusion center’s efforts in facilitating the intelligence sharing between local, state, and federal agencies and the public and private sector. Kevin manages a team of analysts who process tips and leads on threats and public safety information through a suspicious activity reporting system and ensures proper dissemination of analyzed threat information to a multitude of public safety partners to prevent targeted violence and terrorism.
Before joining the Hawaii State Fusion Center in October of 2021, Kevin served as senior leader in the Mesa Arizona Police Department with over 28 years of experience. While at the Mesa Police Department, Kevin held a variety of positions that provided him both operational and administrative experience to include assignments managing large scale homicide, financial crimes, and internal investigations. Kevin also stood up the East Valley Fusion Center in Arizona and worked at a federal fusion center in Washington D.C. that targeted gang violence.
Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Justice Studies from Arizona State University and successfully completed and Executive Fellowship sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Department of Justice.
Jimmie Collins
Chief of Planning and Operations, State of Hawai‘i Office of Homeland Security
Ms. Jimmie L. Collins has served, since February 2020, as the Chief for Planning and Operations at Hawaii State Office of Homeland Security. In this position, she creates and implements statewide planning, develops and fields exercises, and leads the office’s operations for a range of homeland security issues, including terrorism and domestic violent extremism, elections, and cybersecurity. In her position, she also oversees three statewide programs: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, Cybersecurity, and Emerging Threats.
Prior this position, Jimmie served in the Federal Civil Service for nearly 35 years across the Departments of Defense, Treasury, State, and Energy, including overseas tours in Japan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Iraq and travels throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Most recently, she served as Department of Energy (DoE)/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Senior Policy Advisor to Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Headquarters, in Hawaii. There she handled a broad range of strategic issues and provided advice and in-depth analysis on a broad range of technical, scientific, and policy topics.
Kevin Howe
Departmental Program Officer for Cyber, Economic, Education, Infrastructure Security (CEEIS), State of Hawai`i Office of Homeland Security
His role encompasses development and oversight of the newly formed Criminal Intelligence Unit, Digital Forensics Laboratory and Real Time Operations Center.
These efforts reflect the dedication of OHS to strengthening the Hawai`i Department of Law Enforcement efforts in combating criminal organizations, establishing a statewide digital forensics capability and utilizing state of the art policing technology to enhance traditional policing methods.
Kevin’s background in law enforcement spans thirty years, including service with the United States Secret Service, serving as the Senior Executive for Asia, Oceania and the Pacific, overseeing all operations, investigations and protection. He was a leading force in establishing the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force as a focal point for deconflicting cyber related incidents across law enforcement and the intelligence community. He started his law enforcement career as a patrol officer with the Hawai’i County Police Department.
The Hawai‘i State Fusion Center (HSFC) is a Hawai‘i State government program that facilitates intelligence sharing between local, state, and federal agencies and the public and private sectors. As the nation’s 77th Fusion Center, it is uniquely structured to empower front-line law enforcement, public safety, fire service, emergency response, public health, critical infrastructure partners, and private sector security personnel to understand local implications of national intelligence, thus enabling local officials to better protect their communities.
The HSFC collects tips, leads, and other threat information through suspicious activity reporting (SAR). It conducts analysis, disseminates intelligence, and provides training and technology resources. The top priorities are counterterrorism and cyber security.
The OHS Planning and Operations Branch translates the State’s Homeland Security Strategy and policy guidance into OHS mission execution through the development of operational and response plans, which guide and direct OHS’s and the state homeland security enterprise’s activities for priority threats and challenges to the state and national homeland security.
Additionally, the Planning and Operations Branch manages the training and exercise elements related to OHS’s mission. It provides development and sponsorship of educational and training opportunities for practitioners across the homeland security enterprise on topics such as school safety, mass gatherings/large-scale events, and responding to threats like weapons of mass destruction and active shooter events. It also assembles relevant stakeholders, organizations, and support groups to exercise operational and response plans and prepare for various homeland security threats such as .cyber incidents and disruptions, active shooter, HAZMAT issues, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), civil unrest, and more.
To do their jobs effectively, public safety responders depend on sophisticated communications systems to relay mission-critical information in real-time. Today’s wireless communications systems must support an ever-expanding set of missions, such as responses to domestic terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, requiring coordinated participation from agencies at all levels of government. Interoperability, or the ability for emergency responders to communicate among jurisdictions, disciplines, and levels of government, using a variety of frequency bands as needed and as authorized, is crucial to responders.
The State of Hawai‘i receives Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funding supports prevention, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation in the areas of planning, equipment, training, and exercises throughout the state. HSGP plays an important role in the implementation of the National Preparedness System (NPS) by supporting the building, sustainment, and delivery of core capabilities essential to achieving the National Preparedness Goal (NPG) of a secure and resilient Nation.
Contact Us
Administrator Phone: (808) 369-3570
Hawaii State Fusion Center Director Phone: (808) 460-7994
Office of Homeland Security 3949 Diamond Head Road Honolulu, Hawaii 96816
