Honolulu Police Department reviewing policies on body-worn cameras

In response to public pleas for more transparency in the investigations into two fatal police shootings, Honolulu police are reviewing their policies on body-worn cameras to develop a rule governing the release of footage from incidents involving officers, alleged suspects and victims.

During Wednesday’s Honolulu Police Commission meeting, Shannon L. Alivado told interim Chief Rade Vanic that the Honolulu City Council and state lawmakers have suggested passing legislation developing rules and procedures for the release of police body camera footage and other information requested through the public-records release process. Inconsistencies in the release of the footage has further made the issue “top of mind” for Oahu’s communities, she said.

According to the Honolulu Police Department’s website, “HPD believes transparency is critical in establishing public trust and uses body-worn camera (BWC) recordings to document police interactions.”

Currently, release of any footage is at the discretion of the chief of police.

All public requests of BWC recordings are referred to the chief’s office within 24 hours of receiving the request, according to police. The department responds in accordance with federal, state and local statutes and departmental policy. If the chief approves the release of footage, requests from the public for BWC footage would be transmitted to the BWC administrator, along with a date for response, according to police.

Police released edited portions of body camera footage from the April 14 shooting of 29-year-old Lindani Myeni, who died of multiple gunshot wounds after a violent struggle with three officers responding to a 911 call from a woman who alleged Myeni walked into and out of the home she was staying in with her husband at 91 Coehlo Way in Nuuanu. HPD declined to release any footage from the April 5 shooting death of 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap, who police said was killed after he drove a stolen Honda Civic at a barricade on Kalakaua Avenue following a crime spree.

But video evidence from an officer’s body camera that was leaked to Hawaii News Now shows the car was at a complete stop when officers standing to the side and rear of the vehicle fired into it, killing Sykap. Investigations into each shooting are ongoing by police and investigators with the office of the prosecuting attorney.

Police and prosecutors have denied the Honolulu Star-Advertiser requests for body-worn camera footage from the Myeni and Sykap shootings.

Vanic told the Police Commission the department is investigating the leak of the footage in the Sykap case.

In May, Judge Dean E. Ochiai ordered the city to turn over unedited body camera footage, 911 recordings and other evidence to attorneys representing Myeni’s family, denying, in part, the city’s efforts to delay disclosure of that evidence until criminal investigations into the shootings are completed.

Commissioner Doug Chin, a former first deputy prosecuting attorney and state attorney general, pointed out that 10 years ago the public had a different expectation about the timely release of information from shootings by police and high-profile police incidents.

“I really appreciate the efforts of (police) leadership to recognize we are in 2021 and it is a different time, and the public has a different expectation,” Chin told Vanic during the meeting.

State Sen. Karl Rhoads, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the current approach to the public release of body camera footage and police reports needs to be standardized in accordance with state laws governing the release of public records. In 98% of the cases where HPD officers turn on their body-worn cameras, Rhoads believes the officers will be vindicated and their actions justified.

“They are going to have to take their medicine on the 2%. They need to come up with internal rules and stick with them, consistently, or the state and county needs to come up with rules they need to follow,” Rhoads told the Star-Advertiser. “It’s a communications disaster. It makes them (police) look bad, and they don’t seem to realize it makes them look bad.”

Attorney Eric A. Seitz, who is representing Sykap’s grandmother Akiwine Sykap and mother, Yovita Lucio, in a wrongful death lawsuit against HPD and the city, told the Star-Advertiser there is always a danger when police release information that it could interrupt an investigation or taint a jury, but police, prosecutors and defense attorneys have dealt with those issues for decades.

Releasing the body-worn camera footage prior to the conclusion of any investigations helps reassure the public as to the integrity of what is going on, he said.

“If you look at the history of HPD, they release some information and don’t release other information. That’s just hypocritical on their part,” said Seitz. “To me that’s appalling. There are a lot of interests here, and those interests could be met concurrently.”

Vanic told police commissioners Wednesday that an internal department review is happening with HPD’s body-worn camera policies. Police are also considering issuing the body-worn cameras to all officers.

Vanic said the internal review will result in an updated police policy like the use-of-force revisions that were released April 1.

“Instead of saying, ‘We will release this one, we won’t release that one,’ there is a rule,” Vanic said.

Currently, plainclothes officers are not issued body-worn cameras.