Editorial: Don’t consolidate law enforcement

Wasn’t there talk in the Legislature, in the midst of a pandemic and a struggling economy, about consolidating government functions, anticipating leaner days ahead?

Yes, and it was just last session. Lawmakers need to reflect on that when considering — and, with any luck, rejecting — a proposal to add a new government agency.

It’s Gov. David Ige who is proposing the creation of a state Department of Law Enforcement, one that would consolidate existing state criminal law enforcement units. It also would standardize job requirements and training for officers in each county police force. He has some allies among lawmakers who want to see this happen.

But there are also the outspoken critics — not the least of which are the local police authorities for each county — and there is a basis for their misgivings. Specifically, it’s unclear what value would be added for the cost.

Creating a new agency likely would require significant annual expenses for additional staff. In fact, that was the conclusion of a Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) report released in 2019, following an earlier legislative bid to explore the idea.

Further, Ige said last week, it is not yet clear where the new department would be housed. But he has not ruled out the possibility that it could be the proposed 240-acre First Responder Technology Campus, a training complex, also sure to cost millions, for the use of police and fire departments.

At a minimum, the governor hasn’t demonstrated the imperative to make this change at this stage. In a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Ige said that Hawaii is “the only state in the country that does not have a centralized state law enforcement agency.”

That’s not good enough a reason to have one here. Even states with a state police force — highway police and the like — have a more compelling reason to have one: areas between jurisdictions that need bridging.

That doesn’t exist in an island state, where most areas on each island are covered by county police. Where there are state lands that require police presence, Hawaii would do better to ensure agreements struck with county police can adequately cover those needs.

A similar proposal was raised in the 2018 session, in Senate Bill 2909. Initially a measure to authorize an enforcement division within the state Department of the Attorney General, the plan morphed to become a call for a study of the issue.

Titled “Joining Forces? Potential Consolidation of State Law Enforcement Duties in Hawaii,” the report was published in January 2019. The LRB surveyed agencies potentially involved about their needs for such a department, and there was a substantial list from each, as well as the need for additional administrative staff. Even an agency formed nominally to improve efficiency takes money.

According to the report, a number of the respondents to the survey indicated that they would want to be excluded from such an agency. The report ultimately concluded that the goals and scope of a consolidation were insufficiently defined, as were the degree of standardization that is being sought. That’s far from a ringing endorsement.

Rade Vanic, interim chief for the Honolulu Police Department, rightly observed that many of the potential benefits already exist, including established working relationships with federal, state and county agencies. He added that having a centralized command center in an island state could add, rather than solve, logistics problems.

Increasingly, all of this is sounding like a solution in search of a problem — at best, a “nice to have,” rather than something the state really needs at this stage.