Editorial
Police food theft case no small matter

While there is a certain tailgating, barbecue-among-friends flavor to the charges of "food theft" at the Honolulu Police Department, this is hardly a matter than can or should be shrugged off.

According to indictments returned last week, money earmarked for the purchase of food for prisoners was diverted to pay for workplace meals for police officers. Clearly, the idea was to boost morale and offer local-style relief to hardworking officers.

Police Chief Lee Donohue is pushing ahead with an internal investigation even as prosecutors proceed on the criminal theft charges. This is proper, because beyond the immediate accusations of theft, the scheme suggests a culture of entitlement within the department; a feeling that it was all right to divert a few bucks to put on a communal feed for overworked and underpaid officers and their commanders.

It is part of an us-vs.-them culture that tends to separate uniformed police men and women from the citizens they serve and protect.

The head of the police union has called on Donohue and his deputies to resign in the wake of the accusations. That proposal is premature and unsupported by the facts as we now know them.

Donohue and his predecessor, Michael Nakamura, do acknowledge taking part in at least some of the stationhouse meals. In hindsight, they might have asked more questions about where the food was coming from and who was paying, but that in itself is hardly cause for suspension or removal of the command structure.

At this point, both the criminal investigation and the internal investigation should continue on their normal course.

As for the internal review, Donohue and his investigators owe both the police union and Honolulu's citizens a thorough — and explicitly public — report on what happened and what steps have been taken to ensure it does not happen again.