HPD Chief Ballard defends sending officers to TMT protest

Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard said she was answering a call for assistance from a fellow county chief when she approved sending 56 HPD officers plus support vehicles to the base of Mauna Kea during the first days of protest against the Thirty Meter Telescope.

When it was determined within two days that the help wasn’t needed, the contingent soon returned, she said.

“We plan for the worst and hope for the best,” Ballard told the Honolulu City Council Public Safety and Welfare Committee Thursday. “And when things happen, if things had really gone bad, gone south on the Big Island, the (Hawaii County Police Department) did not have the resources to address it.”

HPD would be hard-pressed to mobilize and fly over in a timely manner “if something bad happened,” Ballard said.

“Our job over there, when we talked to Chief (Paul) Ferreira, we were just there for basic support, to help clear the roads and help get the equipment up the roads,” she said. “That was our sole responsibility unless something else happened.”

And while HPD will pay its officers as if they were doing their regular jobs on Oahu, overtime and other expenses will be footed by the state Department of the Attorney General or the Hawaii County Police Department, the chief said.

Ballard appeared before the committee in response to a resolution introduced by Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi asking city officials to provide a report detailing HPD’s involvement with the Mauna Kea protests.

Tsuneyoshi said officers were dispatched before Gov. David Ige issued his July 17 emergency proclamation giving law enforcement increased flexibility and authority to close more areas and restrict access on Mauna Kea. She demanded to know, among other things, how the decision was made to send the officers and how their absence affected police services on Oahu.

Ballard said state law authorizes assignment of agencies to other jurisdictions, and “the four county PDs also have a long tradition of coordinated missions as well as mutual assistance.” The Maui Police Department also sent officers to Mauna Kea.

HPD has gone to other islands for disaster recovery and to search for missing persons, track down fugitives and assist in marijuana eradication, she said. Last year, HPD officers helped out on Kauai after major flooding and on Hawaii island during the volcanic eruption in Lower Puna, she said.

The Honolulu officers arrived for Mauna Kea duty July 16 and began demobilizing the following afternoon. The officers stayed on the island for five additional days but “you did not see us at all” and they “were not anywhere near Mauna Kea,” Ballard said.

It took awhile to arrange return transportation for the manpower and equipment, and the HPD contingent used the time for training, she said.

No patrol officers went to Hawaii island, so there was no impact on public safety on Oahu, Ballard said. “They were all from various specialized divisions throughout the department,” she said. “We also have a Major Events Division which was in charge of the officers.”

To put things in perspective, Ballard said, “57 officers were used for the Martin Luther King Day parade here on Oahu, 116 officers were used for the Night in Chinatown, 450 officers were used for the U.S. Conference of Mayors across four days, nearly 800 officers were used for the International Union for Conservation of Nature conference in 2016 and that was spread over a week.”

Asked by Tsuneyoshi if HPD anticipated going back to Mauna Kea, Ballard said it was not likely but she couldn’t rule it out.

Opponents of TMT have filed a lawsuit seeking to bar use of law enforcement officers from outside Hawaii County on Mauna Kea.