2022-11-18 Police Commission Regular Minutes

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Hawaii Police Commission Regular Session Minutes November 18, 2022 Page 2 responds to the people. The chief of police needs to find new ways to update their department. If they're going to regain the trust and respect of the people in Hawaii, they must do a huge 180. He stated that he is aware that the commission has begun evaluating a lot of candidates, he and would like to put his name on that list because a lot of people approached him and asked him to do so. He explained that he also ran for office in 2022. He stated he can get endorsements of over 10-20 pastors in Hawaii County, two or three legislatures, and others from the community. He asks that the commission selects someone who is from Hawaii, knows the culture of the people, isn't corrupt, won't stick to the status quo, but make changes and regain the trust and respect of the people of Hawaii. Commissioner Quartararo asked about the statistics he quoted earlier. Mr. Kennealy stated he can show them the site that does the reporting or stay and speak to the commission about this after the meeting. Chair Bertsch reminded him of time constraints. Mr. Kennealy stated the statistics and police departments' scorecards can be found at policescorecard.org. Commissioner Sur noted that there are a lot of problems with the judicial system. He hears a lot of positive feedback from the community regarding officers responding to problems they have been facing with the homeless and violence downtown. It's easy to blame the police, but it's the prosecutors, the judges, the legislatures, etc. Mr. Kennealy agreed and stated that at the patrol level, they are doing amazing jobs. • Alohalani Hope Cermelj came before the commission and referred to the Hawaii State Constitution, Article XIV, Code of Ethics. She stated Hawaii County police commissioners, police officers, and the chief, all take an oath and are supposed to follow this. The people of Hawaii believe that public officers and employees must exhibit the highest standards of ethical conduct and that these standards come from the personal integrity of each individual in government. To keep faith with this belief, the legislature, each political subdivision, and the constitutional convention shall adopt a code of ethics which shall apply to appointed and elected officers and employees of the State or the political subdivision, respectively, including members of the boards, commissions, and other bodies. She spoke about the complaints on the agenda and stated they were all ethics violations. She stated the officers are all overworked, they work 12-hour shifts and the department has 60 vacancies. She expressed her gratitude for officers and stated manpower needs to be increased and will send her requests to council members. She stressed the importance of following the code of ethics and she stated to thank the officers who are diligent, who do their jobs, and follow the code of ethics and make sure it happens with the new police chief. She also stated she will be going to the legislature to make a change because the police chief needs to be voted in, as they do in America for their sheriffs and school boards. • Kevin Hill signed up for Zoom testimony, he was called a few times, but he wasn't present.