The Honolulu Police Commission is prohibited from appointing co-chiefs to run the Honolulu Police Department, the commission’s chairman said in a response to senators who suggested that HPD be run by a team of co-chiefs.
"Such action is outside the scope of authority of the Honolulu Police Commission" as set forth in Hawaii and county laws, Chairman Ron Taketa wrote in a letter Friday. In his two-paragraph letter, Taketa said the suggested change also is not permitted under state and county laws.
Taketa’s letter was in response to a letter from four state senators who suggested the Police Commission appoint a co-chief or team of co-chiefs to assist Police Chief Louis Kealoha in managing the department.
"Constituents and other residents have expressed their concerns to us regarding the chief, and we feel a co-team of senior officers involved in the oversight of HPD is a proper course to take at this time," said the senators’ letter, which was signed by Sens. Will Espero, Rosalyn Baker, Breene Harimoto and Russell Ruderman.
After the commission discussed the letter behind closed doors at a Jan. 7 meeting, Taketa said he would not comment until after the senators received a response.
Kealoha told reporters that he doesn’t need help running the department and that his performance or ability to lead has not been affected by a family dispute that he called "a minor distraction in my personal life."
"At least they looked at (the letter)," Espero said on Saturday. "Hopefully, they realize the public is concerned about what’s going on, and they hope things will be resolved as soon as possible."
Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) said he had hoped to see the commission’s thoughts about several recent negative incidents involving police officers.
He said some incidents include police officers not filing a report in an incident involving a fellow officer, an officer captured on video assaulting a man in a game room, two officers charged with sexual assault, and allegations of police misconduct in the chief’s stolen mailbox case. Federal prosecutors referred the mailbox case to the FBI, which has not said whether it is investigating.
Critics of Espero’s suggestion say it would create confusion in the department.
Espero disagreed.
"If you’ve got an agency with over 2,000 employees, I don’t see how it would be difficult to … be able to say, for example, one chief can be responsible purely for the administrative office work. The other chief can be responsible for field operations," he said.
Espero said while HPD has two deputies and six assistant chiefs, they still work for Kealoha and are not calling the shots.
"There’s issues and concerns out there," said Espero, added that he is working on legislation for a statewide law enforcement board. "We’ll see whether things can be done to alleviate the situations or to help regain some of the trust that has been lost."
