Former Hawaii basketball player Kawika Hallums works to uphold standard as police officer

In his career as a Honolulu police officer and now a district sergeant, Kawika Hallums has witnessed situations of all extremes.

But Hallums experienced a wide range of emotions when he watched the video of the death of George Floyd, who died after the Minnesota police officer arresting him pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck.

“When I saw that incident, it just broke my heart,” Hallums said. “It broke my heart for (Floyd’s) family.”

As a union representative, Hallums has contact with other officers across the country. “Everyone is disgusted when they see something like that,” Hallums said. “I promise you, we talk privately about the disappointment we feel. … That is not how every unit I’ve been associated with — the plain-clothes division, the crime-reduction unit, car patrol, in the office, out of the office — is trained. We have (officers) who give a damn about our community, about our people we serve and protect.”

Hallums’ father was African American. Hallums, a sportscast analyst and former University of Hawaii basketball player, said he remembered the pained stories from UH teammates who experienced discrimination growing up on the mainland.

“That opened up my eyes and respect their side of how they were brought up, what they saw, what they went through on a daily basis,” Hallums said.

Hallums recalled an incident when he was visiting his sister in Phoenix. Their car was pulled over by a police officer, whom Hallums claimed fudged the reason for the car being stopped. His sister had to calm Hallums before backup officers were summoned.

“As a black person, I was like, really, that could have been me in Arizona easily, I promise you,” Hallums said.

Hallums understands the angry response to excessive-force deaths, such as Floyd’s. But he said officers are not trained that way, and such tactics are unacceptable.

“When we leave our homes, we already are held to so many standards,” Hallums said. “We call it our standards of conduct. People get fired for violating our standards of conduct, even if you’re off duty. You have to watch what you do, say, act, everything. While you’re at home. While you’re standing in line at the bank. While you’re going grocery shopping. While you’re at a restaurant. We’re held accountable. Guys have gotten fired for their actions that have nothing to do with their on-duty conduct. And we welcome that. We’re held at a higher standard.”

Hallums said officers are trained to control conflicts. “We’ve got to stop the threat to the community, to anybody else,” Hallums said.

“I walked into a home where the husband is trying to stab the wife, the wife is trying to stab the husband. We’ve got to get the knife out of the picture by the training necessary.”

Conversely, he said, officers adjust to situations. “Look at the way we treated the Mauna Kea (protesters),” Hallums said. “Imagine having that type of cop at that site who just strikes elderly (protesters) for not allowing traffic to go through. We don’t do that. We try to get them out of there peacefully. We’re not going to sock an elderly person we love so much. It’s a fight we don’t want to get into.”

In the Minnesota incident, Hallums said, the officer should have eased once Floyd was handcuffed and subdued.

“If I get there, and the (officer) has his knee on a person who’s cuffed, I’m cleaning him off (the guy),” Hallums said. “I’m going to be like, ‘hey, whoa, whoa, get the (bleep) off this guy’s neck.’ Period. I work with so many unreal cops would do the same thing if, God forbid, I ever lost my damn mind and ended up in that situation. Guys would clean me off right there. ‘What the hell, brah?’ No matter if they’re a rookie or a 30-year veteran. That’s the kind of people we have in our department. That’s how we’re trained.”

Hallums also said officers are trained not to respond physically to verbal attacks. He said suspects have sworn at him, called him “pig” and “doughnut eater,” among other labels. “I tell them, ‘be original,’ I’ve heard it all,” Hallums said. “You’re not going to get a reaction out of me.”