Editorial: Openness helps public and police

In Honolulu and many other cities, police procedures ordinarily are not events to which the public has any view, let alone a clear one. This becomes all the more evident in high-profile cases, and there are few that have attained the attention of Lindani Myeni, whose fatal shooting in an encounter with the Honolulu Police Department drew global headlines.

It was a dark night April 14 when Myeni, 29 and unarmed, was shot after police responded to a report in Nuuanu that the South African citizen had entered a home. Some police body-camera footage that circulated captured a glimpse of the explosive encounter, in which one of the three officers was assaulted, a Taser weapon was deployed with little effect and Myeni was killed.

That chaotic scene did not show with any clarity whether deadly force was necessary. Even after the lengthy investigation directed by Prosecuting Attorney Steven Alm, many in the public believe this fatality should have been avoided, while others thought police had to act to stop the assault.

All the same, Alm’s decision to lay out the chronology of events during a news conference on Wednesday did shed some needed light.

He made a convincing argument that the evidence did not support criminal charges in the shooting, tragic as it was. The civil lawsuit filed by Myeni’s widow remains viable, but there was a high hurdle to overcome for a criminal conviction: Two officers acted to defend a third from serious assault.

Whatever conclusion an individual may draw, the general approach deserves praise. Alm’s department conducted an inquiry independently of HPD, a practice that should be applied in other cases of officer-involved shootings, especially those in which circumstances seem clouded.

Transparency leaves the public more confident in the decision against filing charges — and receiving a full report on the incident bolsters police credibility as well.

That said, police owe citizens discussions about how officers can improve their public interactions, avoiding escalations that make fatalities more likely.

Malcolm Lutu, president of the union, the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, issued an anodyne response following Alm’s announcement. Lutu noted that “no officer wants to use deadly force when doing their job to protect our communities.”

Civil suits notwithstanding, HPD should address how the department can ensure better protections for the public.

In April the department convened a committee to review its own use-of-force policy, and the administration of then-Police Chief Susan Ballard approved an updated policy promotes de-escalation techniques. More information on these steps, and on officer recruiting and training, would be illuminating.

Behind the Myeni incident is a complicated backdrop, a composite of the national upheaval over police brutality after the death of George Floyd and the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for his murder. The Black Lives Matter movement, as well as South African associates of Myeni, took interest in the case of the former rugby player, who had been a local celebrity.

Finally, the pursuit of charges in the officer-involved shooting of a 16-year-old boy, killed in early April near Waikiki, heightened the sensitivity around this case.

There are a few clear-cut lessons to take away, though. Body camera footage is helpful, but not always conclusive. Leaping to conclusions on that limited basis is a mistake, and a dispassionate inquiry is needed.

And sharing the breadth of that information with the public benefits everyone — Honolulu’s police force, as much as anyone.