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Honolulu's police chief says HPD doesn't need to be reformed. Meanwhile, her predecessor is about to go to federal prison for corruption and her officers have killed more people on her watch in 2+ years than the previous eight years combined https://twitter.com/honolulupolice/status/1278774090459824128?s=20
This is the same police chief who recently said she doesn't believe implicit bias is all that bad in Hawaii. As my colleague @ahofschneider reported ... she's wrong. https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/06/what-implicit-bias-looks-like-in-hawaii/
There are clear racial disparities in policing in Hawaii. Take, for instance, this excellent piece by @AshleyMizuo that found HPD officers arrested Micronesians, Samoans and Blacks for violating COVID-19 stay-at-home disproportionately more than others https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/racial-disparities-emerge-hpd-enforcement-stay-home-violations#stream/0
The data here are STRIKING, especially for Micronesians. According to the piece, 26% of those arrested were from this immigrant community despite the fact they make up only 1% of the population.
But wait! There's more...
Chief Ballard has also expressed skepticism about legislation that would overturn decades of secrecy when it comes to officer misconduct. Currently, police officers are the ONLY PUBLIC EMPLOYEE in the state who can have the majority of their bad acts shielded from public view
I've written extensively about the lack of transparency and how it helps keep bad cops on the force while at the same time eroding public trust in law enforcement.
In 2013, we published a major investigation that found once a week on average an HPD officer was suspended or fired for misconduct, much of it criminal in nature, yet the public was kept largely in the dark https://www.civilbeat.org/2013/02/in-the-name-of-the-law-what-the-public-isnt-being-told-about-police-misconduct/
