comscore What should the police commission do about Police Chief Louis Kealoha? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Big Q

What should the police commission do about Police Chief Louis Kealoha?

  • . Remove from job (1061 Votes)
  • . Suspend without pay (184 Votes)
  • . Suspend with pay (135 Votes)
  • . Reinstate him (132 Votes)

This is not a scientific poll — results reflect only the opinions of those voting.

Comments (16)

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  • The issues leading up to his surrender of weapon and badge is embarrassing enough to ask for his retirement without recriminations. If he refuses to go, fire him!

  • As many times as this has been in the news, I still don’t understand what really happened and why. Somebody stole a mailbox… why would anyone steal a mailbox. Stealing what’s in it, I understand but the whole box? Why would the chief of police and his wife, a prosecutor, involve so many others as to get the feds interested in what seems to have been described as a family spat? It certainly does draw the attention of the public to the apparent pettiness of the powerful in the city, county, and state.

    • Yes, I didn’t get that either. OK, if you wanted to intercept mail, just open the mailbox and remove the contents. It would be faster that way. Doing that or stealing the entire box is a federal offense anyway, so why take time to remove the entire box? Seems like someone want to capture this on video on purpose to show an actual crime. I’ve opened my neighbor’s mailbox on a couple of occasions when the carrier put his mail in my box accidentally, so maybe having the “criminal” steal the entire box leaves no doubt?

  • If he were to be fired and later found innocent, or not guilty, he would have cause for wrongful termination-even though he is an “at will” employee. The City could then be found liable for a significant amount of money. Even if the City were to settle a lawsuit, the settlement could be substantial. Even more money could be paid for damage to his reputation and loss of his liberty interest rights (“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”). So the Commission has two options: take him off the job, without judgement and at full salary, until the conclusion of the trial, or negotiate a mutually agreeable cash amount for him to retire honorably. Those are the two least costly choices. Firing him now is a gamble the Commission shouldn’t take.

  • To me, the big issue is more compensation than pay if he is cleared of these charges. Better to suspend him with pay until his term is up or his court case is done.

  • Sooner this case comes to an end the better for everyone concerned, this cast a dark shadow on our police department, both on the good and bad cops. This is a big distraction that hopefully will be wrapped up soon, I believe the commission should suspend him until the case is resolved, if he’s found to have done wrongdoing throw the book at him and his wife, if not reinstate him and he’s rightfully vindicated. Dragging this out is doing irreparable harm to the perception of HPD. If found widespread corruption, this department and the Police Commission should be overseen by the FBI and cleaned up top to bottom so the people of Honolulu can regain confidence in the system.

  • I couldn’t care less if he stays or goes or quits or retires or gets fired. But I do find it extremely funny that most of you posters calling for Kealoha’s head would be the very same ones fighting hard to protect their family member if this was happening to them and nothing was PROVEN yet. Sometimes people need to look in the mirror and ask themselves hard questions.

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