COURTESY HPD
One of the four Honolulu police officers arrested this month was Sgt. Darren Cachola, who has a high-profile history of run-ins with the law because of domestic abuse. A bill that sought to make public the identity of a police officer who is suspended or fired has failed once again at session’s end.
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House Bill 285 sought to make public the identity of a police officer who is suspended or fired, starting with the 2021 annual report. Testimony submitted at the state Capitol was overwhelmingly in favor, with the exception of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.
SHOPO had more weight, it seems: The bill, which pops up routinely, has failed once again at session’s end. The House and Senate conference committee, convened to hammer out differences in the chambers’ respective versions, met April 24 and 25, and that’s where this year’s story ended.
The Hawaii effort is just a small part of a national campaign aimed at opening police disciplinary records to the public. Progress has been slow. According to a survey by the New York City public radio station WNYC, records are completely confidential in 23 states.
Hawaii falls into an intermediate group of 15 states, where limited information is available. Here records are public if the police officer is dismissed, but HB 285 sought to extend that to cases of suspension. Twelve states make records public, though some restrict records of unsubstantiated complaints or active investigations.
A New York appellate court ruled in December that a police department could withhold records to protect individual officers. The California legislature, however, passed a bill in January opening records of police misconduct.
Hawaii often follows the Golden State’s lead — perhaps it will in this case, perhaps next year.