Has the Honolulu Police Commission engaged enough with stakeholders and the public as a whole as it’s set to appoint a new police chief?
It depends on who you ask.
Earlier this month the commission announced the names of three finalists for police chief. Their first public appearance was last week, when they were interviewed together by a host on an episode of PBS Hawaiʻi's Insights.
But that wasn’t enough information given to the public, according to Brian Black, executive director for the Public First Law Center.
“There's a lot of information that they could make available to understand how we got to this point … and to understand what their rationale was for why these three candidates,” Black said. “They also could interview the candidates publicly rather than in these convoluted two-on-one sessions that they're doing.”
As part of the process, stakeholders have been able to hold panels to interview the chief candidates. But those meetings haven’t been publicly accessible.
Black also said the backgrounds of the candidates aren’t as thorough as they could be for the public.
There will be an opportunity for community members to testify at the commission meeting to provide their opinions on who should be chief.
But Black said, “Do people have a complete understanding of what the commission wants out of the chief and how these people fit that responsibility?”
On the other hand, the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers has been satisfied with the commission’s process — or at least with its own participation in it.
SHOPO, the state’s police union, has been part of the stakeholder panels with the police chief candidates. On Monday, it conducted interviews with the three finalists.
The union says it has been consulted throughout the search. It is the most involvement the union has had in the search for Honolulu’s police chief in the 26 years SHOPO President Don Faumuina has been with the Honolulu Police Department.
“Our opinions have never truly been sought in the past … Thankfully, our Honolulu police commissioners were open enough to say, ‘Oh yeah, you know what? We'll listen, and we'll see what you guys got,’” Faumuina said. “And the communication has been going back and forth, and it's been very positive. We've been given great feedback, and they've really been listening.”
There have been ongoing questions surrounding the police commissions’ authority to pick police chiefs in Hawaiʻi — and on Oʻahu in particular.
The state's police commissions are made up of appointed volunteers, and have the sole authority to hire and fire their respective police chiefs. The commissions are meant to provide oversight for their police departments. Their authority to hire and fire Hawaiʻi’s top police officers gives them the teeth to provide that oversight.
The Public First Law Center and other groups have spearheaded a charter amendment on Oʻahu that would take away that power from the Honolulu Police Commission, and give it instead to the city mayor.
Part of the argument for the change is that police commissioners on Oʻahu are too invested in the success of the chief to provide proper oversight.
