Posted on: Friday, December 21, 2001

Editorial
HPD: Citizens can't judge performance

We're informed that six Honolulu Police Department officers were dismissed and 56 disciplined for various breaches of policies and the law last year.

In a department with almost 2,000 officers, says Chief Lee Donohue, perfect performance 100 percent of the time cannot be expected. That's reasonable. And it is also heartening that the numbers of disciplinary cases are down.

But how do we know how HPD compares to other departments in the country? How do we know it's generally a tight ship with public-spirited personnel, and not an ill-disciplined crowd with more than its share of rogue officers?

One thing we do know is that few forces elsewhere in the country are more secretive than HPD; many are a lot more open and forthcoming.

By state law, HPD and the other county departments submit to the Legislature outlines of discipline taken against officers in the past year. The report omits names and most of the details.

For instance, we are told that one officer lost his or her job after threatening a "significant other" with an issued firearm while intoxicated.

Now, for the thinking, concerned citizen, this truly is food for thought.

After all, a threat with a weapon is, or can be, a serious crime.

We are left to accept that Donahue's total disciplinary numbers are down, although there were six officers dismissed in 2000 year compared to none the year before. We're told the number of complaints received was down

But we can't see those complaints. We can't see how many of them were vigorously investigated. We have no names, no dates, no details.

Until the force opens up its discipline to the citizenry it protects, it will struggle to inspire real confidence.

Transparency is the kind of higher standard to which a police force will submit — voluntarily — if it hopes to be considered elite.