As the Honolulu Police Commission prepares to select a new police chief by the end of May, residents are making clear what they want: someone who is transparent, communicative and refuses to cooperate with ICE. 

More so than in previous years, that public input will shape the hiring process, and the stakes are high.

The next chief of the state’s largest police force will inherit a chronically understaffed department that faced serious morale issues under former Chief Joe Logan. He or she will be jumping into the leadership role at a time when policing is rapidly changing. New tech like AI-assisted report writing tools and surveillance drones are expanding the capabilities of officers but also drawing immense scrutiny from the public. 

And as President Donald Trump’s heavy-handed crackdown on immigration has unfolded across the U.S., Hawaiʻi residents have become increasingly concerned with the potential for police to be drawn into federal immigration enforcement. ICE tactics have grown more bold and violent, causing communities around the country to fear that if local officers cooperate with federal agents, or even appear to be cooperating, it could lead to widespread mistrust of police by residents. 

Even though HPD says it does not collaborate with federal immigration agents, some community members have said it’s a priority that the next chief promises officers will never work with ICE. 

“I think it’s very important that the next chief of police be someone who makes a very public commitment to not having HPD cooperate with immigration enforcement on Oʻahu,” Nandita Sharma, a sociology professor at the University of Hawaiʻi, told Honolulu police commissioners last week.

“There are people who are not coming to school because of their immigration status. There are people who are not going to church or other places of worship.”

While commissioners haven’t determined what questions they plan to ask the candidates for chief, they say they’re listening to the community. 

“There’s been good community input on a number of issues, including this one,” Commissioner Chris Magnus told Civil Beat. “I think all of that will be considered as we move forward.” 

About 30 people have applied for the job so far. Public Sector Search & Consulting, the California-based consulting firm the police commission hired for $122,000 to help with the search, will review and screen the candidates and present its recommendations to a Honolulu Police Commission working group on April 20. Names won’t be made public until the group is whittled down to three to five finalists in mid-May. 

After Logan stepped down under pressure last June, the police commission vowed to make its search process quicker and more open than it has been in past years. The commission received criticism for taking a year to select Logan after the previous chief, Susan Ballard, retired in 2021. 

While this process has taken about the same amount of time, Commission Chair Laurie Foster said they are working to get more community participation this time around. 

For example, in the last process, semifinalist candidates took written and oral exams at an assessment center and were then whittled down to a group of four finalists. At that point, their names and information were shared with the commission, and public interviews were conducted in a televised forum.

This time, groups of people from different segments of the community, including first responders, government representatives and police reform advocates, will participate in four panels that will interview eight to 10 semifinalists on May 5. Those interviews will not be open to the broader public. Foster said the panelists have already been identified but she will not release their names publicly until everyone has responded to confirm their participation, which she expects to happen in the next few weeks.  

After the panel interviews, the commission will select three to five finalists, who will then be interviewed publicly during community sessions. 

In both search processes, commissioners disseminated a survey to collect input from the public.  

Liam Chinn, a facilitator of the public safety group Hawaiʻi Community Safety Coalition, said he was asked to serve on a panel of community advocates. He said he appreciates the opportunity for broader segments of the community to be involved in the chief selection process, though he wishes the semifinalist interviews could be made public. 

Ultimately, the commission’s commitment to community involvement will show in who they select as the next chief. 

“On one hand, it’s positive that the commission is seeking community input somewhat early in the process, and it signals an understanding that public trust matters,” he said. “But the key is to ensure that that input that is gathered is meaningfully reflected in the final decision. So that’s always my concern.” 

Concerns About ICE Cooperation

The debate in Hawaiʻi over police participation with ICE has played out particularly intensely on Maui, where the County Council in March voted to sever ties between its police department and the FBI over concerns that it could lead to officers getting pulled into federal immigration enforcement. 

Some Honolulu residents have expressed they also want a clear policy stating HPD will not cooperate with ICE. At last week’s police commission meeting, nine people testified to express their concerns about federal immigration enforcement in Honolulu, where about 20% of the population is foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The issue will be on the agenda for the commission’s next meeting on Wednesday.  

The Honolulu Police Department does not participate in federal immigration operations, spokeswoman Noreen Reimel said in a statement. But the department does have a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, as do each of the county departments. ICE is a component of the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

HPD declined to share a copy of its MOU with Civil Beat. A 2024 MOU between the Maui Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security Investigations was published last year by Maui Indivisible, a nonprofit watchdog group. The agreement allows HSI special agents to be embedded into the police department.  

While they understand the department doesn’t currently work with ICE, advocates say they fear that could change under new leadership. There is no state law prohibiting agreements between county police and federal immigration agencies, though there are bills advancing through the Legislature that would prohibit local police agencies from participating in immigration enforcement operations.

The candidates for chief in Honolulu should commit to not cooperating with ICE as a matter of building community trust, said Gaye Chan, a member of Oʻahu Rapid Response Coalition, a grassroots group dedicated to observing and documenting ICE activity locally. 

“If people are afraid that they’ll be swept up for no apparent reason, then they’re not going to call the police,” she said. “If my neighbors won’t call, then we’re all not safe.” 

Chinn said how the candidates view ICE enforcement should be a major factor in whether or not they are chosen to become finalists. 

“Hawaiʻi does not have strong laws clearly limiting police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement,” he said, “so that means that the policies and values in the next police chief will play a major role in determining how this is handled in practice.” 

‘The More Open The Police Are, The Better’ 

Of the 525 people who responded to the police commission’s community survey, 70% said transparency and openness were the top qualities they wanted to see in the next chief. 

During his tenure, Logan was criticized for a lack of communication with the public, his own officers and other public officials. 

Community members told Civil Beat they want the next chief to be open about police operations as well as how the department is using new technology like artificial intelligence and drones. 

In November, police conducted internal testing of an AI-assisted report writing tool from the body camera company Axon. The department also has multiple drones from the Seattle-based company BRINC but has not shared how often they’re used or for what operations. 

“The more open the police are, the better,” said Nathan Char, chair of the Makiki-Tantalus Neighborhood Board. “Like, be open about what’s happening and let others judge if they’re being fair or committed.” 

Police have been rolling out these technologies without regulations or safeguards in place, and the public hasn’t had ample opportunity to weigh in on how they’re being used, Chinn said. Civil liberties groups like the ACLU have also expressed concerns about drones being used for regular surveillance and the potential for AI-report writing tools to make mistakes. 

Chinn said he plans to ask the semifinalist candidates about their stance on these technologies. 

“Honolulu is at risk of sleepwalking into a surveillance state without public consent or basic safeguards,” he said. “The next chief should commit to a hard pause on all expansion of AI, drone and surveillance technologies until robust legal and policy frameworks are in place.” 

“I would love for our HPD officers to just be walking up our street or driving up our street and just saying hi.”

Kimeona Kane, chair of the Waimānalo Neighborhood Board

Honolulu police argue these tools can help save officers time and free them up to do more on-the-ground policing, which has been a challenge given the department’s vacancy rate, which is around 20%.

Kimeona Kane, chair of the Waimānalo Neighborhood Board, said he supports the use of technology if it can help police be more efficient and effective. He would also like to see officers have more time to dedicate to building relationships with the community, especially in rural areas like his. 

“I would love for our HPD officers to just be walking up our street or driving up our street and just saying hi,” he said. “People are afraid of HPD, and we’ve got to work on that.” 

More Police Presence

Neighborhood board chairs from around Oʻahu told Civil Beat having more officers on the streets would help some feel safer. 

Even though violent crime has been trending down overall, recent brazen crimes – like armed robberies by groups of masked assailants at Makapuʻu Beach in February and outside a Kakaʻako nightclub in March – have left some residents on edge. 

Armed robberies decreased from 134 in 2021 to 79 in 2025. This year, there were 22 between Jan. 1 and March 10, according to Honolulu police statistics. At that pace, armed robberies are on track to meet or exceed last year’s total. 

The board chairs say they want the next chief to have a plan for how to recruit and retain more officers so there will be more cops available to respond to calls and engage with the community. 

“I still feel fairly safe, but it also alarms me when I hear about people getting attacked or robbed in the same streets that I go on to,” said Kathleen Lee, chair of the Ala Moana-Kakaʻako Neighborhood Board. 

She said she would like the department to consider opening a sub-district police station in her neighborhood, which is sandwiched between Waikīkī and downtown, two of the busiest police districts. 

Ernest Carvalho, chair of the Downtown-Chinatown Neighborhood Board, said he also wants the next chief to commit to putting more foot patrols in his area, where many people are concerned about drug activity, mental illness and homelessness. 

“People, especially our kūpuna, don’t even want to come out at night, they’re afraid,” he said. “So we get a lot of calls and they’ll ask if we can walk with them while they’re doing their thing, shopping or whatever.” 

But they also say they’d like to see police spending less of their time on calls related to homelessness or mental illness. 

For Chinn, these types of calls that involve low-level, non-violent offenses shouldn’t be handled by police at all. 

A Civil Beat investigation found police issued 11,000 citations to people sleeping or camping on city beaches, parks and sidewalks between August 2024 and August 2025, but the vast majority of tickets were given to the same people over and over again. The findings suggest people who need help are instead getting trapped in revolving door of enforcement. 

The next chief should prioritize partnering with other response agencies, like the city’s CORE Team, a branch of Honolulu Emergency Services that deals mainly with homeless people, and focusing police resources on the most serious, violent crimes, Chinn said. 

“We want a chief that can embrace a broader definition of public safety, so a chief that understands that police alone cannot solve homelessness, mental health issues or substance abuse,” he said. “We want to ask questions that will gauge that chief’s willingness to partner with health, housing and community-based providers.”