At every workplace, management faces challenges working with employees and their problems. But when those interactions become abusive and, worse yet, the manager is the problem, the challenge reaches crisis proportions.

And when the end product being compromised by this dysfunction is public safety, the lack of swift, corrective action can cause real and lasting damage to the institution.

The Honolulu Police Department is facing another showdown over allegations of misdeeds by ranking officers in the case of Maj. Stephen Gerona, who had led its Criminal Investigation Division.

The Honolulu Police Commission is slated to meet today to weigh the allegations, which raise concerns that Gerona has implemented an aggressive and discriminatory style of management that led to a hostile work environment for his subordinates.

The commission needs prompt answers from the police leadership on how this situation has been allowed to fester and what can be done to eliminate abuse in the future.

These are serious complaints, and HPD top brass is showing that they are being taken as such. The fact that Gerona already has been reassigned to a far less powerful and critical post in the Legislative Liaison Office is evidence of this.

Details about the probe will not be disclosed, interim Chief Rade Vanic said in a prepared statement issued last week, citing confidentiality of the complaints. But at that time Vanic also said no changes in CID leadership would be made until the findings are complete.

What changed? Possibly it was that state Sen. Kurt Fevella, Honolulu City Councilman Augie Tulba and others put the issue more clearly in the spotlight.

A lawsuit filed by police Detective Maile Rego was the most recent to surface. Rego alleged that Gerona and others in CID blocked her appointment to a federal task force and undercut her reputation by claiming that she was a “rogue” detective. Rego’s clash with colleagues erupted after she had alleged a missing-baby case had been delayed.

This certainly leads anyone to question how investigations meant to protect public safety are handled. And it was just the latest chapter in a real litany.

Among the episodes: A 2009 lawsuit led to a $550,000 payout over allegations that Gerona, then a lieutenant, and former Chief Susan Ballard, then a major, had tampered with test scores for recruits.

The suit also alleged that some women got harsher treatment than men in the training room after Ballard reassigned Gerona to oversee it.

The city also settled two lawsuits for $1.6 million. Four officers accused Gerona of retaliation after their complaints about mishandled COVID-19 funds for overtime led to his removal as District 3 commander.

But then Gerona was transferred to head CID, a prestigious post. That’s at least twice he advanced through the ranks after costly legal dust-ups. That’s no way to run a police department.

Unfortunately, that’s all uncomfortably reminiscent of the scandals foisted on the public under former Chief Louis Kealoha, whose top-level abuse of power network involved the commandeering of police officers to function as a squad targeting perceived enemies.

HPD is working to extricate itself from that painful history of misbehavior. Currently, three officers involved in a high-speed crash in Makaha that left a teen paralyzed and a man on life support have been on restricted duty pending an investigation.

But much more must be done, starting with the commission playing its proper oversight role in the handling of the Gerona case. It’s troubling to see any corruption of power where public welfare is at stake — a toxic element that must be rooted out.