Honolulu’s police chief is convening a committee to revise its use-of-force policy, among many changes in store or already underway following weeks of public outcry globally for sweeping police reforms and an end to bias in policing.

The protests that spread across the country, including Hawaii, and around the world, were prompted by a white police officer killing while restraining George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis; and another officer on Saturday killing Rayshard Brooks in Atanta. Officers in both instances have been charged with murder.

Chief Susan Ballard told the Honolulu Police Commission on Wednesday at its monthly meeting that the use-of-force policy review committee will include a member of the commission, HPD’s internal affairs (Professional Standards Office), its training division and Information Technology Division as well as its legal adviser.

Out of the 40,000 HPD arrests annually, force is used in 5% of those cases, Ballard said, which amounts to about 2,000 instances of use of force a year.

“Of that 5%, 95% is just a light touch in escort, maybe a leg strike,” she said. But anything higher than that would be half of 1% was used for pepper spray. The next level, a quarter of 1%, was use of a Taser, and it went down from there, she said.

Other than handcuffing, any touch would require the officer to file a use-of-force form, she said.

She addressed a Civil Beat article that showed a discrepancy in the number it tallied — 29 people killed by Honolulu police from 2010 to 2019, and what HPD reported, a total of 11 lethal use-of-force incidents in its annual use-of-force reports.

Carrie Okinaga, a member of the Honolulu Police Commission, said she realizes the point of the article is that the discrepancies throw everything into question.

Ballard said the article was speaking about shootings or fatalities or for people dying in police custody.

“What they don’t understand is that for our reporting, if it is a justified homicide, it is not reported as a fatality when you take a look at the FBI stats,” she said. “So there’s certain rules for our reporting.”

Ballard said when she came on as chief she realized there was a problem with its in-house database when she needed to ask someone for help to decipher what it means.

So under her supervision, HPD purchased a computer aid in dispatching system (CADS) and records managing system with forfeiture funds.

“I didn’t feel comfortable with a homemade system,” she said. “We need something that’s reliable, not saying it’s not reliable.”

She said CADS should be up this year, while the records system is a year or two down the road.

Accurate data would help in providing reliable, consistent information for training division and internal affairs and whatever areas HPD is weak in, she said.

A significant change would require reporting of names of officers who have engaged in misconduct, in accordance with House Bill 285 and the executive order on policing from President Donald Trump.

It would require county police departments to disclose to the Legislature the identity of an officer upon an officer’s suspension or discharge, beginning with the annual report of 2021. It amends the Uniform Information Practices Act to allow for public access to information about suspended officers when the suspension occurs after March 1, 2020.

Ballard said that reporting is inevitable.

HPD is recommending that procedural offenses not be included in reporting, and that the offenses be narrowed to such things as felonies and domestic violence.

Commissioner Richard Parry asked whether Ballard worries about backlash from the officers.

She said that the police union opposes reporting because of similar concerns over procedural offenses.

Ballard said officers may have trouble “reacting to certain situations or not reacting because it’s not worth getting into trouble,” she said.

HPD has also begun a pilot program to have social services workers ride along with officers in cases involving mentally ill suspects and those who might need to be “talked down,” Ballard said.

Parry asked whether it has ever been tried before. Ballard replied that previously, the social services worker would remain at the station in domestic violence cases.

In this new program, the officers would ensure the scene is safe before the social worker gets out of the car.

The changes also will occur at the training level.

That includes two days of bias training for officers, which will begin after “the quarantine is over,” Ballard said.

Officers also will be required to intervene if they see their beat partners doing something wrong, “you need to stop them,” Ballard said.

Part of de-escalation would be to use less-than- lethal alternatives, such as Tasers, pepper spray, batons and even a method that is called the BolaWrap, which previously had been considered.

The BolaWrap uses Kevlar strings fired from a small device at a suspect from a distance. The strings wrap around the suspect’s legs or arms, tying them up with little or no harm to the suspect.

She said plainclothes officers will receive “ more formal training,” in de-escalation, because they only carry guns, not the less-than-lethal weapons that uniform officers also carry.

The commission held its meeting via YouTube. The meeting’s agenda found on HPD’s website can be found at honolulupd.org, going to “Department” and clicking on “Commission.”

Commission Chairwoman Shannon Alivado invites the community to share their suggestions and thoughts concerning HPD’s use-of-force policy by email at policecommission@ honolulu.gov, or mail or drop off to 1060 Richards St., Suite 170, Honolulu, HI 96813.