The Honolulu Police Commission, through consultant PSI Services, would like to know what qualities and attributes you want in the next police chief.

Should that person be analytical?  Cooperative? A good listener?  Willing and able to serve as the face of the department?

Posted on Sunday and available through Saturday, the detailed online survey asks for respondents’ opinions on the current status of the police department, the most pressing challenges that face Honolulu’s police force, and what the next police chief needs to do to pull the department out of the tailspin of scandal and ineffectiveness that has gone on for years.

OK, that last part was my wording. The survey phrases it more diplomatically, asking what skills and qualities the next chief will need to succeed.

There is a list of 25 attributes and characteristics from which respondents are asked to select 10 which they believe are the most critical in the next chief.

Choices include traits such as: innovative, open to change, preparedness, fair mindedness, decisiveness, a strong character, trustworthiness, and commitment to the profession.

There is no box for “all of the above.”

Not to knock the survey and the laudable effort by the Honolulu Police Commission to involve the community in selecting the new chief, but “all of the above” is the best answer.

That’s what HPD needs now. A superstar. A savior. A servant-leader who can transform the department. A June Jones, but from back in the day before he got so sassy.

It can be argued that no one person can be good at everything, but HPD needs it all right now, and things like “trustworthy” can’t be less or more important than “decisive.” It’s not a matter of finding one person who can do everything. It’s about finding a strong, honest leader who can lift up everyone to do their best.

My father, who served on police commissions on both Maui and Kauai decades ago, would have had a chuckle at modern strategies that involve anonymous opinion surveys.

He would have marveled at a $145,777.50 contract to separate the wheat from the chaff and narrow down the list of applicants to the top 12.

“That’s the easy part,” he would say. “Getting rid of the ones who aren’t up to the job is duck soup. Finding the best one for the job, that’s hard.”

I’m imagining my dad as the voice of generations past, of old-time community members who didn’t have to worry about Twitter take-downs or viral videos or how things looked, and could instead focus on foundational things like honesty and integrity and whether the police force was keeping the community safe.

Things are so different now. Police are responsible for a huge range of thankless jobs, from street-level social work to situational assignments like patrolling for Covid violations. After too many incidents across the country of police brutality and racist behavior, trust has eroded.

After former HPD Chief Susan Ballard told the public that the department just had too many job vacancies for cops to do stuff like catch thieves and follow up on break-ins, it was like the community quietly gave up and turned to online sleuthing and Ring cameras to do HPD’s job for them.

The survey also lists what are termed “challenges” facing HPD and asks respondents to select seven of the 19 items listed that are most pressing for the department and most critical for the new chief to address.

The first on the list is “basic crime reduction.” If only all seven “votes” could be plunked into that category to emphasize the weight of just doing the job.

Other things on that list are important, like fairness outside the department, which is defined on the survey as “treating all members of the community equally and fairly,” gaining trust, and modernization and recruitment, but reducing crime and keeping people safe are, again, foundational.

The list of challenges mentions “transparency” and defines the term as “being more transparent with the community by sharing appropriate and accurate information,” which is amazingly vague. How can the department hold transparency as a goal when it took Civil Beat eight years in court to obtain heavily redacted disciplinary records of police officers?

The strongest sector of the Honolulu Police Department is the union that fights again and again to keep lousy cops on the job. SHOPO’s outsized influence on HPD is not referenced in the survey, but everybody knows the power of the union and Hawaii News Now’s Lynn Kawano has built a franchise of telling story after tawdry story of wayward police officers who break the law but keep their badges. The new chief is going to have to know how to take on that fight.

There is much to hope for with this new beginning for HPD. This survey, as well as meetings with community groups and stakeholders, is a thoughtful approach to selecting new leadership for the department. It is also a reminder to whomever is chosen that times are different and the community is empowered to speak their concerns and ask questions.

Consider responding to the survey.