Some odds and ends on the Money Trail:

Last week's column discussed my mostly failed efforts to learn details about the Honolulu Police Department's purchase of wide-screen televisions and related equipment for a new emergency command center at police headquarters.

Between $800,000 and $900,000 was spent on unspecified equipment and installation costs, but further details were not supplied.

The column provoked some startling responses.

Several readers believe it was a dangerous attempt to expose important security secrets.

One wrote that I should "burn in hell" for being a "mental midget and an Al Qaeda auxiliary."

Whoa. What was I just reading about e-mail and the lost rules of civility?

Another reader's nicest term for me was "shill" and suggested I should spend more time exposing police incompetence (and worse) in combating the drug trade on the North Shore.

Good to hear from you.

A more benign response came from a reader who thought it "a positive rather than a negative" that the police are trying to keep up-to-date on equipment acquisitions.

Two police officers actually said they liked the column and pointed out that HPD already has two mobile command centers — equipped at a cost of well over a million dollars — that also will be available to coordinate police responses in emergencies.

And Les Kondo, head of the state Office of Information Practices, leaped to my assistance without even being asked.

He fired off a letter to HPD directing the department to turn over the requested records by March 30 or to state in writing why the request for access to the information was being denied.

I appreciate the help, Les. And how are you coming on my request for Office of Hawaiiian Affairs records on the $2 million lobbying effort for passage of the Akaka bill in Washington, D.C.?

I appealed OHA's denial of those records to Kondo's office Oct. 28, 2005. No word yet.

Finally, I can report that HPD was most helpful in answering questions about the status of its long-delayed indoor firing range project at the department's Waipahu training academy.

It's been expanded to include classroom and office space, at an extra cost of $1.8 million. Another $721,000 was needed to cover increased material costs. Total tab: $9 million. And it's not done yet.

If you know that a particular money trail will lead to boondoggle, excessive spending or white elephants, reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com