Search begins for next Honolulu Police Department chief

For the second time in four years the Honolulu Police Department is searching for new leadership after the demands of running the state’s largest law enforcement agency brought an abrupt end to a veteran officer’s career this month amid “rumors” and political finger-pointing.

The nationwide search for Honolulu’s 12th chief will be steered by civilian police commissioners who boast a diverse array of professional and public service experience but have never selected a police chief.

The process will play out under scrutiny from newly elected Mayor Rick Blangiardi and a City Council majority of five first-term members. Honolulu’s charter leaves the responsibility of selecting and dismissing the police chief to the Honolulu Police Commission, a seven-member panel appointed by the mayor. But that has never stopped elected officials and anyone with a voice from weighing in and attempting to influence the pick.

Commissioners must find a replacement for Chief Susan Ballard to take the helm of the 89-year-old Honolulu Police Department and earn the trust needed to lead more than 1,800 sworn officers and 460 civilian personnel and rebuilding public confidence with a command staff that trusts one another and works well as a team.

Honolulu’s next police chief faces a department-­wide audit, longstanding questions about overtime policies, a U.S. Department of the Treasury review of CARES Act expenditures and renewed concerns about the use of deadly force following two separate officer-­involved killings of two reportedly unarmed suspects this month.

An interim chief will be named to manage HPD as it continues to work through a fluid global health crisis and a nationwide clash of attitudes toward policing that has been amplified by racial discord, economic inequality and public outcry.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

The person who gets the permanent job will have no shortage of challenges and constituents.

“The next chief must understand how Honolulu is impacted by the military, tourism and economic challenges and how these factors impact residents,” Honolulu Police Commission Chairwoman Shannon L. Alivado told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “As Honolulu recovers from the woes of the pandemic, there are many residents that continue to feel the impacts … not only financially but mentally, as well. The next police chief must be able to work with other government agencies, private businesses and nonprofit providers in addressing the challenges facing the public, including mental health issues and increased drug use and crimes due to crisis.”

Joining in the search with Alivado — an attorney and a department director with the Hawaiian Electric Co. — are former YMCA president and Family Court Judge Michael Broderick; Carrie K.S. Okinaga, vice president of legal affairs and the University of Hawaii’s general counsel, who once worked as the city’s Corporation Counsel; Richard Parry, a former CEO of Aloha Petroleum; Gerard “Jerry” Gibson, a former vice president of Turtle Bay Resorts; and Doug Chin, the city’s former managing director who served as lieutenant governor, state attorney general, and as a Honolulu deputy prosecutor.

Blangiardi nominated former police officer Benjamin Mahi to fill the vacant seventh seat on the commission, but Mahi withdrew his nomination last week for unstated reasons.

For now, Alivado said the Police Commission’s top priorities are naming an interim chief to step in when Ballard retires on June 1 and ensuring the selection of the next chief is sound, fair and timely.

“While the search for Honolulu’s next chief of police may involve a search firm to assist with the process, the commission will be readily involved in the process and will ultimately select the next chief of police,” Alivado said.

The Police Commission is scheduled to meet Monday and again on Wednesday to undertake the first steps toward conducting a nationwide search.

Ballard, through a spokeswoman, declined to be interviewed by the Star-Advertiser. She announced her retirement this month following a poor annual review by the Police Commission and has not elaborated on the remarks she made in a video message:

“The Honolulu Police Commission has been taking a more active role in running the department, and it has become increasingly clear that I no longer have the trust and support of the Police Commission or the new mayoral administration,” Ballard said. “This, along with a rampant rumor campaign, has made it next to impossible for me to lead the department effectively.”

Communication, along with leadership and management, is an area where Ballard received criticism during her annual review, even while she retains the support of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers union and has been praised by Alivado, other commissioners and fellow officers for her direct and transparent approach.

CHANGING LEADERSHIP

Ballard’s historic selection as the first woman to lead HPD came in the wake of a federal investigation that led to the convictions of former Chief Louis M. Kea­loha, two other police officers and Kealoha’s wife, Katherine Kealoha, a former deputy prosecutor.

Louis Kealoha retired after learning he was a target of an investigation into reports the Kealohas framed Katherine’s uncle for the theft of the Kealohas’ mailbox in order to cover up their botched scheme to steal a reverse mortgage from Katherine’s grandmother to pay for the couple’s lavish personal expenses.

Louis Kealoha was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction and bank fraud in 2019 and is scheduled to begin a seven-year sentence in federal prison on June 1. Katherine Kealoha was immediately sent to the Federal Detention Center near Daniel K. Inouye International Airport after her conviction and is serving 13 years on the same charges.

The Police Commission’s nationwide search to replace Kealoha with Ballard took nearly a year.

Ballard joined HPD in 1985 and worked in various operational and administrative positions, including in narcotics and vice and the Downtown-Chinatown patrol district. As a commander, she led the Kaneohe and Kalihi patrol districts and the Finance, Training, and Central Receiving divisions, according to her department bio.

“Being the chief of police is never easy,” said Sheryl Sunia, a former HPD homicide detective who retired in 2009 and is now a criminal justice instructor at Hawaii Pacific University.

“Today, it’s difficult being a leader because public perception may be wrong, unrealistic or uninformed. We sometimes forget that the Police Commission is made up of appointed officials by the mayor who have not gone through the training and experiences that officers have,” Sunia said.

“As a former officer, and not knowing all the circumstances, it is never easy to say what should have been done. A chief should be able to run their department as they see fit, if they show fairness, integrity and respect to all.”

Communication and transparency with every rank of officer and the community are essential to successfully leading the department, Sunia said.

DEMANDS OF THE JOB

Ernest Y. Martin, an attorney and the longest-serving City Council chairman in Honolulu history, also highlighted the complicated demands of police leadership in Honolulu.

Martin said the police chief must be free to run the department as they see fit. He hopes the administration, council and HPD proactively educate the public about the challenges and complexities that officers face every day.

“The media, because of its limited scope and resources, only provides a constrained glimpse of the facts and circumstances that surround any specific case, and in most instances, ‘drama sells,’” said Martin, who represented Central Oahu, the North Shore and parts of Windward Oahu from 2011 to 2019 and in prior leadership roles in the city administration. “I believe that the recent actions, regarding Chief Ballard’s evaluation and recently commissioned audit of the department by the City Council, were well intended but misinterpreted.

“Going forward, all, including the chief, need to do a better job of fostering a relationship of cooperation in meeting the expectations of our community with respect to law enforcement. At the end of the day the ‘blame game’ never works.”

City Council Chairman Tommy Waters said the next police chief will have to reverse troubling trends within HPD, among them a case clearance rate of 7.8% for all crimes in 2019. Waters also stressed the need to refine the department’s financial management.

He introduced a resolution unanimously approved by the City Council that calls for a management and fiscal audit of HPD after the U.S. Treasury requested an accounting of the department’s federal CARES Act expenditures and officer overtime payments that ballooned from $23.6 million in 2017 to $38.3 million in fiscal year 2019.

“I believe that the City Council, Honolulu Police Department and the mayor’s office all want the same thing — and that is to serve the people to the absolute best of our ability,” said Waters, an attorney who served as a deputy state public defender and previously chaired the state House Judiciary Committee as a state representative.

“The Council wants to be able to provide HPD with the funding and training that the department needs to succeed. In turn, we expect a department that is accountable to the public in its operations and management,” Waters said. “I’d like to see transparency, fair management practices and leadership in exploring ways to promote community engagement. At the Council, there has been significant discussion about the value of HPD’s community programs in helping to bridge divides, as well as efforts to champion policies that will allow for first responder diversion to social services when they may be better able to handle certain situations.”

SHOPO President Malcolm Lutu hopes the next chief will be promoted from within the department and focuses on education, recruitment and training of new officers in what he called the best police academy in the country.

He praised Ballard for her leadership during the pandemic and her work with SHOPO to advance policies affecting officers. Unlike her predecessors, her tenure was challenged by a pandemic, a flagging economy and rapidly changing perspectives on policing spurred by nationwide coverage of police shootings and bad behavior that is often limited to a tiny percentage of a police department’s officers, he argued.

“It is escalating and getting worse,” Lutu said. “It is a profession that few people want to do. And who blames them?”