Several Oahu residents who participated in the Hawaii Poll said their opinion of Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha was marred by recent events involving the chief and his wife, Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.
The poll showed Oahu residents were nearly split in their opinions of Kealoha with 32 percent favorable and 28 percent unfavorable. The results had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
However, a large number of respondents (41 percent) said they didn’t know enough about Kealoha or never heard of him.
"At this point the police chief is a low-interest category for a lot of the population," said Rebecca Ward of Ward Research, which conducted the poll by cellphone and landline from Jan. 13 to 23. "People really aren’t paying attention."
Ward said the fact that such a large number of people were unfamiliar with the chief was disappointing.
"These are issues that should be important to the community, and the community should know who their police chief is," she said.
But maintaining a low profile may be advantageous for Kealoha, she said, because he is appointed rather than elected. The Honolulu Police Commission is the only body that can hire or fire the police chief.
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Do you have a basically favorable or unfavorable opinion of Police Chief Louis Kealoha?
Favorable
35%
Heard of but don’t know enough
24%
Never heard of
11%
Unfavorable
30%
Do you have a basically favorable or unfavorable opinion of Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro?
Favorable
42%
Heard of but don’t know enough
22%
Never heard of
14%
Unfavorable
22%
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Downtown resident Karl Minke said he had neutral feelings about Kealoha until Kealoha caused a mistrial in federal court, and a judge dismissed a gambling case his wife handled for the prosecutor’s office.
In the mistrial in December, Kealoha commented on the witness stand about the defendant’s criminal history, forcing the federal judge to declare a mistrial because the information prejudiced the jury.
"It’s hard for me to believe that the police chief doesn’t understand the basics of the legal process," Minke said.
In October, Circuit Judge Randal Lee dismissed a 414-count indictment brought by the prosecutor’s office against nine people connected with sweepstakes gaming machines.
Lee said Katherine Kealoha and Jacob Delaplane, the two deputy prosecutors who presented the case to a grand jury, committed misconduct, and he disqualified them from the case in the event prosecutors get a new indictment.
Minke said that case reflects poorly on the chief and wondered whether justice was being served.
"It’s a really bizarre relationship here between a police chief and an assistant prosecuting attorney, who apparently is rather new at her job or not very competent according to the judge," he said. "It just seems to me that boundaries are not being properly set here."
Minke said he didn’t have any feelings about Chief Kealoha before the high-profile incidents because the chief usually stays out of the spotlight. "Most public officials we hear a lot more about," he said. "The police chief, we normally don’t hear anything about, and when we do, and it’s all negative, then it makes us worry a great deal about what’s going on."
Others raised questions about Katherine Kealoha’s civil trial, in which her uncle and grandmother are suing her, claiming she stole family money.
That trial, which is still being heard by a jury in state court, started a few days before polling ended.
Chula Clark, a farmer from Kaneohe, said the chief should have taken a temporary leave of absence during the trial.
"It shows bad judgment on his part," she said. "It just doesn’t feel right."
Brandon Ho of Aiea said his opinion of Kealoha soured after the December mistrial, leaving him with a "bad flavor" in his mouth.
"For someone with that kind of responsibility to forget himself in a situation like taking a witness stand does sound kind of implausible," he said.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro had a clear majority of support: 37 percent favorable compared with 19 percent unfavorable.
Approval of Kaneshiro, who holds an elected position, increased slightly among registered voters: 42 percent favorable compared with 22 percent unfavorable.
Among all poll participants, Kaneshiro had more support from older citizens and Japanese residents: 52 percent of the oldest group surveyed — those 55 or older — and 55 percent of Japanese showed support for him.
Ward said Japanese typically have a strong voter turnout and historically support other Japanese.
Similarly, Kealoha had more support among Hawaiians compared with other ethnic groups. Forty percent of Hawaiians favored him compared with 33 percent of Japanese — the ethnic group with the next-highest level of support. But Japanese poll participants, overall, were not supportive of Kealoha, with 38 percent having an unfavorable opinion of him.
The poll also showed a slight majority trusts the Honolulu Police Department in investigating officers in cases of police shootings or police brutality.
Clark, the farmer from Kaneohe, said she doesn’t trust the department to investigate its own because she knows of good and bad officers within the department.
"I don’t think they should be judging themselves," she said.
A larger portion (61 percent) of those under age 35 — the youngest group in the survey — supported the Police Department in investigating its own. When comparing economic status, more support (58 percent) came from people in households with incomes of less than $50,000, the lowest economic category in the poll.
Of the residents who do not trust police to investigate fellow officers, most (56 percent) trust the attorney general’s office, 43 percent trust the Prosecutor’s Office and 22 percent trust the Police Commission to do the investigations.
The commission does not conduct criminal investigations, which are conducted by the Police Department’s Professional Standards Office, leaving some unclear about the commission’s role.
Minke, of downtown, was among those who said there needs to be in independent body investigating officers because of the possibility of a conflict of interest.
"I had hoped that that’s what the Police Commission would do, but it’s not clear what they’re doing," he said. "I had assumed that they would be handling these sorts of things."
