The Kauai Police Commission wants more time to conduct investigations.

The seven-member commission that oversees the operations of the island’s police department has 90 days to go through the entire process of investigating all complaints that come to it.

Commissioners have said the long process of hiring an outside investigator can eat into time they need to make a decision. Voters will be asked if the 90-day window should instead start once the commission receives the final investigative report.

Deputy county attorney Chris Donahoe presented the charter amendment proposal to the Kauai Charter Review Commission in December. Procuring an investigator could take more than 30 days, which leaves less time to complete the investigation and have the commission evaluate it, Donahoe said. 

Another concern was that people could kill an investigation by stonewalling for 90 days in the hopes that it would go away because the time limit ran out.

Police commission rules used to allow internal investigators to do the probes. But recent meeting minutes show the commissioner prefers investigators who don’t live on Kauai and have never worked in law enforcement.

A 2016 consultant’s report on department workloads said 90 days is sufficient to conduct investigations.

“This is a reasonable amount of time to conduct the investigation and report the findings for all but a few exceptional cases,” the report said.

It’s not clear how often the police commission has taken longer than 90 days to resolve cases.

The question that will appear on the ballot is: “Shall the Police Commission’s 90-day window for reporting written investigation results start when the Commission receives the investigation report?”