State lawmakers Tuesday grilled Honolulu’s police chief and two of his deputies on policies regarding domestic violence investigations — seeking answers about how officers respond to calls and about what’s being done in response to video showing an officer in an apparent assault on his girlfriend.
Chief Louis Kealoha said at a public informational briefing at the state Capitol that the Honolulu Police Department is open and willing to collaborate on improving response to domestic abuse cases.
The hearing came in the wake of surveillance video that surfaced last month that appears to show HPD Sgt. Darren Cachola punching and hitting his girlfriend in a Waipahu restaurant.
The department’s internal policies and procedures were the focus of the joint committee briefing, where lawmakers wanted an update on domestic violence in Hawaii, HPD response and ideas for improvement.
HPD has come under public criticism over its handling of the Cachola case, but department officials told lawmakers Tuesday no criminal charges will be pursued.
"There wasn’t enough to bring a criminal charge," Kealoha told reporters. He added some witnesses might have been reluctant to cooperate after the video circulated online. Kealoha said the full video, which has not been released, tells the complete story of the incident. The woman in the incident reportedly claimed it was horseplay.
Kealoha said police have turned the case over to prosecutors, who are still investigating and could ultimately decide to bring charges.
HPD is still conducting an internal investigation into Cachola’s actions, and the sergeant remains without any police powers while the administrative review continues.
Kealoha was prepared to show lawmakers the full video, but state Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) asked that the video first be shown privately to lawmakers, out of concern that airing it publicly could taint any future investigation or legal proceeding.
Espero, chairman of the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee, said many lawmakers had raised concerns about the policies and procedures in place when officers respond to domestic violence calls and admitted that the hearing may not have occurred had the video not surfaced.
"There’s a good possibility we would not have, because no one was just aware of the situation — that code of silence, or that issue of protecting one’s own," Espero said. "So without the video, who knows where we would be today and whether the case would have gone to the prosecutor?"
Officers who responded to the Waipahu incident didn’t file a report, but should have. Deputy Chief for Patrol Operations Marie McCauley said those officers will be disciplined.
Kealoha said the department is looking into what the responding officers knew about the incident. He said a 911 call that sent officers to the restaurant wasn’t for domestic violence, but for a male employee reporting an argument between himself and an officer.
State Sen. Laura Thielen (D, Hawaii Kai-Waimanalo-Kailua) said she had hoped domestic violence professionals could share their perspective on the problems they encounter with the response of some officers to calls for assistance in domestic violence cases. She said she also was looking for a willingness from HPD to acknowledge the need for some changes and what initiatives they’re going to take.
"I had hoped they were going to come to the table with more initiatives on their own," Thielen said. "It seemed that today was mainly a continuation where they’re defending their policies, although acknowledging that they could use — I think the word they used was ‘tweaking.’
"So I’m not sure that they were aware, still, of the gap between where they are in viewing their internal department operations and policies and where the domestic violence service community is," she added. "So I think we have a lot more work to do to start to bring those two groups closer together."
Kealoha said afterward the department is open and willing to collaborate on improving response to domestic abuse cases.
"They identified some of the issues that they had — they heard it from their constituents," he said. "We’re just open, and we’ll do the follow-up and continue to work with them and the domestic violence advocates to improve on our performance."
Kealoha said he believes his department remains among the best in the country, and while it isn’t perfect, it is always looking at areas where it can improve.
"That’s what this whole dialogue is about — whether or not it’s enough," he said. "And from the dialogue that they had, it’s not enough, and we’re going to look at it again.
"We always have to be moving towards improving," he added. "If everything was going good and we didn’t have any complaints, then something is wrong, and that’s what this is for — how do we improve ourselves as a police department, how do we change a culture if the culture of the police department is wrong, and that’s what this is for."
Domestic violence professionals said they are encouraged by the willingness of Kealoha to work with them.
"From what I heard today, it sounds like they want to make the changes and they want to work with us, the service providers, so I’m very hopeful," said Marci Lopes, executive director of the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Cathy Betts, executive director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, said a good starting point would be to look at how domestic violence victims are treated by officers.
"I think that there needs to be strong leadership within HPD that actually upholds the zero-tolerance policy," she said. "They need extensive training. They need extensive education on domestic violence — the dynamics of domestic violence — otherwise with any of these responding officers, it’s bound to happen again."
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
