Mayor Kirk Caldwell is supporting the Honolulu Police Commission’s decision to wait until a possible FBI investigation concludes before looking into allegations of police misconduct in a federal case involving the police chief’s stolen mailbox.
"I do believe that the Commission is properly reviewing the situation, and if facts surface that warrant an investigation, I fully expect the Commission to deal with it appropriately and expediently," Caldwell said in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Caldwell’s support came as some raised questions about whether the Police Commission is adequately monitoring the Police Department.
Meda Chesney-Lind, a criminologist who chairs the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Hawaii, was troubled that the commission doesn’t investigate misconduct, as has been alleged in the mailbox case.
"If they can’t, then we need a new police commission," she said. "We need one that’s given … meaningful policies and procedures so the public can be assured that there’s real accountability."
Chesney-Lind was also concerned that the Police Commission was not addressing complaints about the police’s use of force in Honolulu. She said the commission sustained only 3.4 percent of public complaints about police use of force in a four-year period ending in 2012.
"It seems that the Police Commission is completely inadequate to the task of any kind of meaningful oversight of the Police Department," she said.
"You’ve got a police commission that’s sort of toothless and not particularly credible and appears to be largely a cheering squad for the Police Department," she said. "It’s not a good situation."
The allegations of police misconduct arose in a trial in which police Chief Louis Kealoha was a prosecution witness. The allegations concerned the handling of evidence by police. Kealoha caused a mistrial about two weeks ago by offering unsolicited testimony about the criminal history of the defendant: Gerard Puana, uncle of Kealoha’s wife, Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.
Puana had been accused of stealing the Kealohas’ mailbox. Public Defender Alexander Silvert, Puana’s attorney, said that after the mistrial, he presented his case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which requested that the case be dismissed and referred it to the FBI.
Last week a federal judge dismissed Puana’s case with prejudice, meaning that prosecutors cannot refile charges.
"Given the unusual circumstances of this case, and with the referral of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (of the case) to the FBI, there’s something going on," Silvert said. "You would hope and think that an authority on the state or county level would begin an investigation."
Silvert has said the defense’s investigation revealed misconduct at the Honolulu Police Department and that the Kealohas told federal authorities Puana stole their mailbox as a way to discredit him in a related civil case.
Silvert declined to say how high up the alleged misconduct at HPD reached in the investigation of Puana because he will be meeting with the FBI in January to discuss the case.
Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro said his office would prosecute any officer if evidence of a crime is produced, but so far he has only heard "wild allegations" without any evidence.
"The question is, Is there evidence of criminal conduct? We look at evidence of criminal conduct. We don’t look at allegations," Kaneshiro said.
Chief Kealoha met with the commission Wednesday, for the first time since the mailbox case was dismissed, and updated the commission behind closed doors in an executive session about his family dispute. He declined public comment through an HPD spokeswoman.
Commission Chairman Ron Taketa said after the meeting that the commission would wait until the FBI concludes its probe, if it opens any, before looking into allegations of misconduct. He said the commission would not conduct a parallel probe that could trample on an FBI investigation.
He added that the commission would leave the investigation to higher authorities that have more legal power than the commission to investigate.
Taketa later told the Star-Advertiser that the commission doesn’t investigate complaints of criminal conduct and violations of department procedures. Those complaints are forwarded to the Police Department’s Professional Standards Office.
THE COMMISSION has four main roles: reviewing the department’s annual budget; determining whether officers should have legal representation in civil and criminal cases; investigating public complaints about police conduct — such as overbearing conduct or excessive use of force; and appointing, removing and evaluating the chief. It is the only body that can fire the chief.
Honolulu City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who is a member of the Women’s Legislative Caucus, said some caucus members recently discussed whether others besides the commission should have the ability to fire the chief. She said a better option hasn’t come up yet, and the discussion is ongoing.
Pine, however, supported the commission’s decision to allow the FBI to finish its investigation, saying it would be best for the city to have an outside, unbiased agency investigate misconduct within the department.
She said the commission, however, should look into whether the chief’s personal problems are creating too much distraction for him to lead effectively.
Taketa said there often has been a "knee-jerk" reaction from the public demanding action when allegations are made against an officer or an officer is captured on video behaving badly, but he believes there is proper police oversight in Honolulu and that the commission is helping to improve the department.
He said the commission enhances public trust in the department by allowing citizens to file complaints against officers without walking into the Police Department — the commission’s office is on Richards Street — and by having civilian investigators work at no cost to the complainant.
"A lot of people, even if we turn down a case because there’s not enough evidence that the officer acted improperly, they thank us because we took the time to look into it," he said.
Over the 10-year period that ended in 2013, the commission received an average of 110 complaints a year and sustained about 12 percent of those.
Without the commission, Taketa said, unhappy citizens would hold onto their animosity and hatred toward the department.
"You have to have a place to go to and complain," he said. "If you took that away, I don’t think anyone could logically say there would be more trust within the community."
THE COMMISSION, which has an annual budget of about $500,000, has a civilian staff including three investigators who compile reports for the commission — a panel of seven volunteers appointed by the mayor.
The commission reviews the reports, decides whether they are valid and sends the valid complaints to HPD, Taketa said.
The department’s Professional Standards Office conducts its own investigation, conforming to department standards and policies. The PSO’s findings are sent to the Administrative Review Board, a panel of deputy and assistant chiefs who make recommendations to the chief. The chief makes the final decision on whether to sustain the complaints and discipline officers.
Taketa said the PSO has to re-investigate the case because under the union’s collective bargaining agreement, only the employer can discipline the employee. If the commission got involved in an officer’s discipline, the union could argue improper involvement by a third party, and the officer could win a grievance, reversing his disciplinary action.
Taketa said the chief informs the commission about the results of the department’s investigation but that information remains confidential because of personal privacy rules. The original complainant learns only about the results of the commission’s investigation and not the Police Department’s.
Liana Perez, operations director of the nonprofit National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, of which the Honolulu Police Commission is a member, said civilian oversight boards vary by jurisdiction, but most do not conduct criminal investigations.
She said civilian oversight boards usually investigate only noncriminal complaints, which helps reveal patterns of more serious problems within the department.
"If you’re not minding some of the little things, that’s when the bigger things (snowball)," she said, adding that civilian oversight boards help increase public trust and confidence in police departments.
She said the Honolulu Police Commission’s ability to fire the chief is unusual for a civilian oversight board and could benefit the community by removing political ties to the department’s operations and adding representatives from the community that the police chief must satisfy to keep his job.
Taketa said the commission has developed a level of trust with the department that is necessary to function because the commission relies on officers’ voluntary testimony in investigations. He said he cannot recall an officer refusing to cooperate with a commission investigation.
He said the commission doesn’t conduct criminal investigations because officers are not required to testify before the commission and likely wouldn’t talk under the advisement of their attorneys.
Taketa acknowledged that Kealoha’s family dispute is a "distraction" for the department and that Kealoha has been hit with several high-profile incidents recently, such as the video of an off-duty officer appearing to assault a woman.
"Aside from this one family dispute that the chief is involved with through his wife, you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water," he said. "The department functions well. It’s a great police department."
He said the public defender’s allegations, however, are unsettling for the commission. "We’ll continue to monitor it," he said. "If anything does come out of the investigation, we’re certainly prepared to do anything we have to in order to address it."
