Audit of the Honolulu Police Commission
from Honolulu County Auditor, August 2024
Audit Results
We first found that the HPC lacks defined rules or processes to meet all of its charter requirements. The Revised Charter lists several responsibilities for the HPC, such as
- reviewing HPD rules and regulations;
- reviewing the annual proposed HPD budget and making recommendations to the mayor;
- reviewing the five-year plan submitted by the Chief of Police;
- comparing, at least annually, actual HPD achievements against the goals and objectives in the five-year plan; and
- evaluating, at least annually, the Chief of Police’s performance.
While the HPC has recently conducted required reviews of the HPD budget, it does not currently have a process to regularly review HPD rules and regulations, due in part to HPD’s lack of cooperation with the HPC’s requests. Additionally, in the past, the HPC informally combined two responsibilities – the comparison of HPD achievements against the five-year plan and the performance evaluation of the Chief of Police – into one process. When the commission decided not to evaluate the interim chief in 2022, it meant they also neglected to review HPD annual achievements. This lack of defined processes for each of the HPC’s responsibilities leads to inconsistent and ineffective oversight of the HPD.
We also found that the HPC’s complaint review process lacks full transparency and accountability. Although most complaints the HPC reviews are not sustained, they primarily focus on alleged officer conduct, such as discourtesy or use of force, and have revealed procedural issues like improper use of body-worn cameras and recurring issues with individual officers. The HPC sustains a small percentage of complaints that have evidence to support the allegations, and refers them to the HPD for further review. However, the HPD disagrees with many of the referred complaints, which may be due in part to the lack of common review criteria and limited commissioner training. Apart from the required written response from the HPD only when it disagrees with a sustained HPC complaint, during our review period the HPC received no documented information on whether the complaints it sustained or the emerging concerns it referred to the HPD resulted in corrective action or responsive changes. Overall, the HPC has limited information on if its efforts to serve as community advocates are actually resulting in individual accountability and necessary improvements in the HPD.
The audit report makes seven recommendations to the HPC and three recommendations to the Honolulu City Council to improve the commission’s effectiveness as an oversight body for the HPD and as an advocate of the community in law enforcement matters.
The HPC expressed general disagreement with our two primary findings and noted lukewarm consideration to implement some of the recommendations.
read … Full Report (77pgs)
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