Turnover on the volunteer state and local government boards presents a perpetual challenge, but the recent resignations of Honolulu Police Commission members compel an especially crucial call to action.
Two of them, Loretta Sheehan and Steven Levinson, have expressed concern that the balance on the commission is tipping back toward a more supportive — read, passive — role of the Honolulu Police Department’s administration. So the charge now will be to appoint replacements who will maintain a more aggressive oversight.
Across the country, protests over policing have intensified calls for better law enforcement approaches. Honolulu’s police force, thankfully, has maintained ties with the community far better than in cities where the mutual mistrust can end in tragedies such as the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis.
Even so, the vacancies on the commission could be the occasion to strengthen the panel’s advocacy on behalf of ordinary Oahu citizens who are its true constituency.
It could require the commission to broaden its scope and push more forcefully for more disclosure of police disciplinary records, as well as greater influence over how disciplinary matters are handled.
In addition, the agency can’t be allowed to slip back into holding meetings that, during the advent of the pandemic shutdown, were conducted out of public view. This lapse ultimately did resolve correctly, so that Wednesday’s meeting did stream online for the public.
But a renewed push for reform will be a heavy lift. Two of the most assertive, reform-minded members have now resigned: Sheehan, the former chair and vice chair; and Levinson, a retired Hawaii Supreme Court associate justice. Both wanted a more robust oversight role for the commission.
Months earlier, the seven-member panel had lost member Karen Chang, who resigned because her husband, Rick Blangiardi, announced his candidacy for mayor.
That indeed would have been a conflict: It is the mayor who appoints members to the commission, whose primary task is the selection and job review of HPD’s chief of police. Mayor Kirk Caldwell has said he will fill the three vacancies in the coming weeks.
Prior to its last major turnover in leadership some four years ago, the commission had failed to perform its principal function well. That much was evident in its uncritical evaluation and contract renewal for Chief Louis Kealoha, later ousted and then convicted in a corruption scandal.
Plainly, the commission had not been in the habit of looking too deeply or asking tough questions.
The Kealoha matter should have been the business of the police commission; instead, it simply sat back as the FBI conducted a federal investigation of the chief. With proper oversight, the malfeasance at HPD could have been uncovered, halted and prosecuted much sooner.
Fortunately, the commission was put on firmer footing with changes in leadership, including the appointment of the current chief of police, Susan Ballard, whose evaluation was reviewed on Wednesday.
But the commission’s job shouldn’t end with that verdict. Oversight is an ongoing imperative, and it should involve a wider lens. The commission must hold the chief accountable for implementation of policy and discipline of those who stray too far from it. And it should push legal reforms forcing public disclosure of officers who are penalized as bad actors, identities now shielded by state law.
The overwhelming majority on the police force does properly uphold its duty to protect and serve. But the terrible scenes reeling out from across the country in recent weeks show what can happen when authorities look the other way.
