Seems Civil Beat isn’t the only news agency that’s pushing for more transparency from Hawaii’s police departments.
In the latest issue of MauiTime, Editor Anthony Pignataro calls on state lawmakers to put an end to a public records law exemption that guards suspended officers from having to disclose details of their misconduct.
Pignataro pins the exemption on the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, the union that convinced lawmakers it was needed in the first place.
Here’s an excerpt:
We as citizens pay taxes, which goes to pay police officer salaries, and yet we cannot hold bad cops accountable. We can look at the disciplinary record of other state personnel … but not police officers, who would seem to be the most important government employees that most people meet.
While no one’s saying these cops who were busted by Internal Affairs are local versions of Christopher Dorner (or even Augie T in Get a Job!), members of the public are perfectly right to wonder if they should still be wearing the uniform. And given the secrecy with which we treat cops who’ve run into trouble with their superiors, where’s the incentive for the department to treat infractions seriously if there’s no one watching them?
Civil Beat wrote a five-part series last year about the secrecy surrounding police misconduct and how it leads to a lack of accountability for police officers, causing some lawmakers to take notice and introduce legislation.
We’ve also filed a lawsuit against the Honolulu Police Department to force the agency to release the names of 12 officers who were suspended for egregious misconduct.
You can read our latest piece on police misconduct in Hawaii here. Click here to read Pignataro’s full piece.
Screenshot of latest cover of the MauiTime.
—Nick Grube