Support for HPD officers high, support for chief low, poll finds
Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha fares poorly in the latest Hawaii Poll, but Oahu residents generally have confidence in the Honolulu Police Department.
When asked whether they had favorable or unfavorable opinions of Kealoha, the City Council and the three major mayoral candidates, Kealoha received a 28 percent favorable rating, the lowest by far. The nine-member Council received a 45 percent favorable rating, the second lowest.
But the responses to the poll were overwhelmingly positive for the Honolulu Police Department, with 41 percent voicing “strong confidence” in the department and another 8 percent reporting “very strong confidence.”
Some 35 percent were “neutral” when it came to their confidence in HPD, and 8 percent had “little confidence.”
In an email response to the Hawaii Poll results, Kealoha said in a short statement, “I’d like to thank the public for its confidence in HPD and for the support that the department has received following the shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge.”
Jocelyn Chang-Chuck, 68, of Mililani was among the respondents to the Hawaii Poll who rated Kealoha unfavorably because “our police chief should be a role model, and I don’t see him as a role model. The police chief should have high moral standards. From what I’m reading and hearing, he does not.”
Conducted by Ward Research from June 30 to July 9, the poll surveyed 401 likely primary voters on Oahu. It had a margin of error of 4.9 points.
In a January 2015 Ward Research poll of 322 registered voters on Oahu, Kealoha had a 35 percent favorable rating. The 2015 poll had a margin of error of 5.5 points.
Kealoha has acknowledged that he is the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI, which the chief linked to a family feud involving his wife, city Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, some of her relatives and the alleged theft of the couple’s mailbox.
Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, Gerard Puana, was charged with stealing the mailbox. During Puana’s trial in December 2014, Chief Kealoha caused a mistrial when he provided unsolicited testimony to the federal jury about Puana’s criminal history.
Puana’s lawyer suggested that Kealoha deliberately caused the mistrial, and said the prosecutor dismissed the case after he presented evidence of police misconduct that was going to be presented in the trial.
Last month the Kealohas sued the city, the Honolulu Ethics Commission and the commission’s former executive director and former investigator. The Kealohas previously sued the Ethics Commission in July 2015 and again in September.
Despite Chief Kealoha’s troubles, Karen Morneau, 67, of Aiea gave him a favorable rating in the latest Hawaii Poll “for his public service. I approve of his job performance.”
Morneau has concerns about “the recent personal things that are happening with the police chief, but he’s a public servant and I think he’s doing well.”
Overall, Hawaii Poll respondents were statistically deadlocked on whether they approve or disapprove of Kealoha’s job performance.
While 43 percent approve of the chief’s job performance, 41 percent disapprove.
In a separate question, however, 48 percent said he should not remain on the job, compared with 39 percent who said he should keep his job.
Even Kealoha supporter Morneau believes Kealoha’s days are numbered as head of HPD.
“Because of all of these personal affairs, he may be asked to step down,” Morneau said. “In the end that’s going to be the primary reason why he must step down and has to step down.”
Respondents to the Hawaii Poll were clear in who they believe should have the authority to hire and fire Honolulu’s police chief.
Asked whether the mayor should have the authority to hire and fire the police chief instead of the Honolulu Police Commission, 54 percent said no. Only 40 percent thought the power should be given to the mayor.
Despite all of the attention focused on Chief Kealoha, poll respondents such as Morneau appreciate the work of HPD’s rank-and-file officers.
Morneau, who has been involved in three driving incidents — including a “road rage driver” who tailed her — that resulted in interactions with various HPD officers, said, “The police came right away and helped me out.”
When she sees officers doing their job on the road, such as monitoring drivers’ speed with radar guns, Morneau said, “I always give them the shaka sign. Every time I do that, an officer waves back at me. It’s trivial, but to me that’s important to know they’re human beings.”
20160719 Hawaii Poll Tables July 2016 – HPD Kealoha by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
24 responses to “Support for HPD officers high, support for chief low, poll finds”
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“Respondents to the Hawaii Poll were clear in who they believe should have the authority to hire and fire Honolulu’s police chief.”
Voters will likely have the opportunity to express their desire to authorize the police commission to fire or terminate the chief. The final wording of the potential change to the charter is at http://www.honoluluchartercommission.org/images/approvedproposals/PROPOSAL_C-1.pdf, and the next full commission meeting is this week Friday at 3:30 p.m.
Kealoha was a bad choice to be chief from the get-go. The credibility of HPD is far less good than the poll suggests and we have seen too many rogue cops out there.
Allie,
I think your “read” on rogue cops is due to their actions being sensationalized and the LEOs that honor do their duty the right way and with humility and don’t end up on headlines.
nothing really new, just forgotten. As a young under grad student at UH in the early 70s part of research study on victimization. My portion of the study found, generally, the more interaction between police and victims the better the views of police. Less interaction lead to perceived views influnced by media, if you read that crime was high generally, you felt crime was high in your community even though statically it was low. So more interactions with patrol officers and detectives, better view. When police departments lost federal funding for community policing, less interaction, more isolation (increased work loads, increased technology-officers didn’t have to get out of car to do work), lead to perceived views.
OMorneau was involved in3 traffic incidents, one being road rage? Sounds like she needs to get over to the right.
lol
Were you the one who tailed her?
I totally picture the exact same faces The Onion uses in their parody section “American Voices” when the S-A publishes these polls.
Poll results don’t surprise me. But, maybe, we the people, should be the one to vote for our police chief. Mayor will still be the boss, but, we the people should say who. The fire chief’s position can be continued to be handled by the same committee.
“We the people”? Are you kidding me? Look around ,with all the politicians “We The People” voted for. How’s that working out?
However , a good start would be the Police Commission.Who few of them have any experience in Law enforcement……. Go figure.
Question, are you saying that the way the Chief is selected is ok? And I guess as a broader question, are you saying that the democratic process is not a good one?
They can be just as effective as HART where none of the members has built a train.
Great …..just what we need…..more sign waivers? C’mon man !
I shaka’ed but still get ticket.
IRT Canefire: sooooo funny! LOL!
Kealoha should step down.
This issue does not need 401 respondent with information provided to the Ward pollsters. Some thing are suggested, some things are felt and some thing just are. This one “are” or in the present vernacular… this one bee’s. It is palpable, real, rational and very observable. We need pollsters…. thanks.
The reason why Hawaii will never be where we should be in everything Living, traffic, politics…
its because of people like: Karen Morneau….
Police chief using his own(Police) resources to hound his Uncle for mailbox and using his influence to mistrial, The Chief is a failure but Karen thinks he’s doing a good job…
Kealoha needs to go. He was a bad choice from the start as he had a history of misconduct.
Not a very good example for his department. It is not a surprise that there have been many incidents of
police officers involved in criminal conduct and abuse under his tenor. The public may not be aware of
Kealoha’s history but his fellow officers know it well. Your conduct does not matter as long as you have
friends who will cover up for you. O’merta or following the code of silence has too long been the way things are done at HPD. This police department like many others need to seriously address their poor relationship with
the communities they supposedly serve. The us against them attitude needs to change or you can expect
continued acts of violence against police officers that you see on the mainland.
When people begin to see that there are two kinds of justice, one for the public and one for the police and
they have no adequate means to address this, some will choose to take the law into their own hands.
Integrity, confidence and reliability are requisites that people judge the police. Unfortunately the Chief did not rate high! Must earn the trust of the people!
Kealoha was never a good candidate for Chief, he was chosen because of union support and collaboration with the then mayor Mufi Hanneman. The current mayor and police commission are like ostriches with their head in the ground waiting for their butts to get bitten, then ckaim no one told us anything.
It is a credit to the quality of the Honolulu Police Department’s officers that it has functioned this well with the lack of Kealoha’s leadership, interaction and integrity. The momentum is running out and it is beginning to unravel. It is devastating for the new officers to have no credible role models to follow as the promoted by Kealoha were “Yes” men or “token” promotions because of their sex.
Orlando,Baton Rouge,Dallas,Chicago,Atlanta,St.Louis on and on. Yes Honolulu is doing GREAT. A reflection of our City Leaders. You may now sit.
It’s pretty clear what the Chief has to do if he wants his job.
Take a hint Louie and retire with whatever dignity, if any you have left. Even your supporters see the writing on the wall. Perhaps the Mayor will consider offering you up as a “sacrifice” before the general election if his polls don’t improve soon. His numbers aren’t much better than yours.