It started with a “breaking news” item about Honolulu Police Department promotions on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser‘s website.
What caught our attention was the final line: “HPD declined to release their names.”
That seemed strange. We’ve seen plenty of examples in recent history where the department published the names of all the officers it promoted or recognized. (See one such example at the bottom of this article.)
So we called to find out for ourselves. We’ve had our own problems obtaining information about the names, titles and salaries of Honolulu police officers, and it appeared this could be another step in making the department even more secret.
It turns out that Chief Louis Kealoha on Wednesday promoted 42 officers. He named one, veteran Major Susan Dowsett, who was elevated to assistant chief. The other 41 went unnamed.
When Civil Beat called the department’s spokeswoman, Michelle Yu, she referred us to Captain Andy Lum. He told he was “waiting on direction from Corporation Counsel.”
Why did the department change its approach to naming promoted officers? Lum said he couldn’t “speculate.” Asked whether it had anything to do with the dispute with Civil Beat over the department’s refusal to release the names, salaries and job titles of officers, Lum said, “No.”
So we called the corporation counsel’s office, which serves as the legal adviser to the police department. We were told by a spokeswoman for Corporation Counsel Bob Godbey that we should speak with the police department’s legal adviser.
When Civil Beat asked the department’s Yu to connect us with the legal adviser, we were directed back to Captain Lum.
It wasn’t until 4:45 p.m. Friday that Civil Beat received a press release from the department identifying the promoted officers. (View it at the bottom of this story.) The email did not explain why the release of their names had been postponed for so long — the promotions occurred Wednesday — or why they had suddenly been released.
It is customary practice for police departments to release the names of promoted officers. Civil Beat checked with departments in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, all of which name all promoted officers without hesitating.
The Seattle department posts all updates on its online “blotter”, a blog of sorts that includes press releases announcing officer promotions, according to SPD spokesman Mark Jamieson. Searching within the blotter for the term “promoted” yields several department press releases that list the names of all officers promoted.
“We try to provide as much information as possible,” said Jamieson, noting that Seattle police would, unlike HPD, release officers’ salary information if asked. “And generally, promotions are seen as a good thing.”
Portland police do the same in their press releases, including one from March of this year.
San Francisco’s police department also makes available the names of promoted officers and their salaries, according to spokeswoman Albie Esparza.
Unlike Seattle, San Francisco typically excludes the names officers when announcing their promotions — but Esparza says that’s because listing so many names is cumbersome. If asked for the promoted officers’ names, the San Francisco department would release them. (HPD explicitly declined to provide promoted officers’ names until Friday afternoon.)
“That’s public information,” said Esparza.
HPD has recently removed some of its public-information websites, including the blog that once compiled department announcements and press releases. (The web site now bears the capitalized word “forbidden.”)
According to Yu, the department now relies on its facebook page to publicize police announcements. The promotions were mentioned on the facebook page on Wednesday, but only Dowsett was named.
During the day Friday, Yu told us Honolulu police didn’t produce a press release for last week’s officer promotions.
Then, after our inquiries, a press release suddenly appeared.
