REFORMING HONOLULU POLICE OVERSIGHT: EVALUATING THE ABILITY OF GENDER AND DISABILITY-BASED POLICE VIOLENCE TO REFORM OVERSIGHT MECHANISMS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SCIENCE May 2017 By Aaron Hunger Dissertation Committee: Kathy Ferguson, Chairperson Katharina Heyer Lawrence Nitz Colin Moore Meda Chesney-Lind Keywords: Police Reform, Gender Violence, Disability Violence, Criminal Justice Policy ABSTRACT National efforts to increase police accountability during President Obama’s presidency have been fueled by vivid images of police violence that have largely targeted black men. The root of many of these highly publicized incidents appears to be post 9/11 shifts in American policing that deprioritized community centric policing models in favor of a more militarized approach. President Trump’s administration and appointees within the federal government appear intent on returning to this strategy, which have begun to reverse oversight reform which took place after 2008. While race has been the primary intersectional stimuli for change in most U.S. states, gendered and ability violence by Honolulu police has driven local reform efforts following APEC in 2011. Research has found that of the 2099 sworn police serving as county law enforcement in Honolulu, an average of 1 in 6 officers has been accused of misconduct since training adjustments were made towards first-shooter based training. Over forty cases of police violence and criminal misconduct by Honolulu Police officers (since 2010) have resulted in the sentencing of six officers to federal prison, and the resignation of the Honolulu Police Chief who was alleged to have engaged in public racketeering. Despite overwhelming evidence of historical problematic past practices by Honolulu police that appear to target mental illness or gender, it wasn’t until the October 2014 video of Honolulu Police Sgt. Darren Cachola violently attacking his girlfriend that a community based call for police reform began. Reform minded lawmakers, together with activists, investigative journalists, and a coalition of bachelor level criminal justice college students under my supervision, galvanized to uncover, repair, and redirect police policy. This feminist-based community action project seeks to determine if gendered or ability violence by Honolulu police will spur the same oversight reform 1 policy as racially motivated police violence has on the mainland. My dissertation discusses ongoing efforts to develop police reform strategies specifically in Honolulu, and more generally across the State of Hawaii. 2 Table of Contents ABSTRACT....………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER 1 – Introduction 1.1 Dissertation Road Map………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…5 1.2 How and Why I Became Involved in Police Policy Reform ………………………………….………………………….8 1.3 Methodology and Theory ……………………………………………………………………………………….……………………18 CHAPTER 2 – Historical Overview 2.1 Historical Roadmap to Police Oversight Reform.………….……………..….…………………………………………….27 2.2 Police Reform Development in the U.S. and August Vollmer ….……………………………………………………28 2.3 Policing in Honolulu During the Kingdom and Regime Change ………………………………………..……………57 2.4 The Kahahawai-Massie Affair and Richardson Report …………………………………………………………..……..75 2.5 The Police Act and Honolulu Police Commission (HPC): Oversight ahead of its time …………………….87 2.6 The Rise of Organized Crime, SHOPO, and the Restructuring of the HPC….……………………………..….101 CHAPTER 3 – Gender and Ability Based Police Violence Increases at HoPD 3.1 Roadmap to the Policing Problem in Honolulu and a Caveat About My Measurement …………...…..106 3.2 HoPD’s Training and Strategy Shifts Preparing for APEC: Modern Colonialization .……………………...110 3.3 An Intersectional Space Between Police-Based Gender and Ability Violence, and the Warrior Mentality ……………………………………..……………………………………………………………..…………………………………...125 3.4 The Warrior Mentality & HoPD Gender-Based Violence Rates ……………………………..……………………..133 3.5 The Warrior Mentality & HoPD Ability-Based Violence Rates..……………………………………………..………150 CHAPTER 4 – Paving New Pathways to Oversight Reform Policy 4.1 Introduction to Reforming Police Oversight in Hawaii .……..………………………………………………………….179 4.2 Judicial Remedies as Police Oversight ..……………………………………………………………………..…….……………181 4.3 Helping to Stem Police-Based Domestic Violence: Project Safe on Streets (SOS)……………………………200 4.4 Pathways to Advancing Four New Laws in Hawaii Surrounding Police Oversight…………….……………..217 4.5 Revising Honolulu County’s Charter to Repower the HPC ..……………………………………………………………232 CHAPTER 5 – Management and Leadership’s Importance in Modern Police Oversight Systems 5.1 Roadmap to Lessons in Police Management and Leadership……..……………………….…………………………240 5.2 Management vs Leadership in Modern Police Bureaucracies………………………………………………………..241 5.3 Police Subculture: How Organizational Subcultural Norms are a Product of Leadership Values ..….254 5.4 HPC’s Job Analysis of Chief Kealoha: A Teachable Moment in Police Leadership……….………..………..266 5.5 When Leadership and Management Turn into Racketeering According to the F.B.I..…….………………289 5.6 Lessons in Educating the Public on Maladministration and Mismanagement in Policing ..…………….298 CHAPTER 6 – Conclusion 6.1 Conclusion Overview………………………………………………………………………………………………….………………….309 6.2 Recommendations on Future Policy or Oversight Mechanisms for Hawaii …..…………………………….…309 6.3 A Final Word………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….319 3 Table of Contents APPENDIXS Appendix A – Data Tables Outlining Gender-Based HoPD Police Misconduct 2009 – 2016………………….322 Appendix B – Data Tables Outlining Other than Gender-Based HoPD Police Misconduct 2009 –2016…323 Appendix C –2015 Legislative Bills and their disposition……………………………….……………………………………..324 Appendix D – Report prepared for State Representative Thielen…………………………………………………………325 Appendix E – 1996 Poll on Police Services Satisfaction by Star Bulletin……………………………………………....333 Appendix F – 2015 Poll and Text Displaying Public Satisfaction in Police by Hawaii News Now…….……..334 Appendix G - Chief Kealoha’s 2016 HPC job review that renewed a five-year contract.……………………….335 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................338 4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Dissertation Road Map Several American communities have begun dialogs addressing issues involving local police services. Relationships between police and the communities they serve have become fractured to the point of Presidential intersession in 2014,1 and are positioned to become more contentious based on President Trump and Jeff Session’s commitment in abandoning community calls for policy reform.2 Problems involving police oversight reached critical levels after shifts were made in domestic policing policy in 2001 to the degree President Obama requested systemic criminal justice reform across the United States.3 In Honolulu, community perceptions of political ties into police corruption are supported by empirical evidence both historically and currently which have insulated police from reacting to community and presidential calls for policy reform.4 As a former law enforcement officer and military police officer trained to operate both domestically and internationally, I have watched a shift in how some policymakers have chosen to allow police to operate within their communities and believe these shifts are the result of those legislators allowing police executives and unions to guide their decisions involving oversight policy and mechanisms. In my dissertation, I argue that gender and ability- based police violence has the ability to move policymakers into reforming police oversight mechanisms to the same degree race has been used in cities across the nation. I base my 1 (Condon, 2015) (Office of the Press Secretary, 2014) (The New York Times, 2014) 2 (Eilperin & Cameron, 2017) 3 (Lee, 2014) (Office of the Press Secretary, 2014) 4 Outlined in more detail see pages 2&3. (Daysog, 2013 (PBC)) (Grube, 2014 (NTA)) (Grube, 2015 (ATS)) (Grube, 2015 (HELM)) (Grube, 2015 (NB)) (Kawano, 2016 (KKT)) (Kawano, 2016 (Chief)) (Perez, 2016 (SOC)) (Perez, 2016 (NNR)) (Perez, 2016 (CTL)) (Perez, 2016 (CPR)) (Perez, 2016 (BO)) (Perez, 2016 (LAO)) (Perez, 2016 (Meth)) (Stannard, 2005) (Straus, 1978) 5 hypothesis on the work done in Hawaii to address police malfeasance, and how gender and ability-based police violence were the catalysts. Responding to the presidential mandate demanded by President Obama, the majority of criminal justice research nationwide has turned towards answering questions involving systemic dysfunction based on racial variables, or which involve race as a major variable within the study. In Honolulu, Hawaii the racial relations between police and the community is different and more complex than in the mainland allowing new questions and data to emerge and be addressed regarding police oversight.5 The Honolulu police department (HoPD6) has maintained a hiring practice where the racial similarity between the police and the community contrasts with the mainland pattern of white police in minority communities.7 This more complex and representational racial pattern allows a different result in police service delivery, where police- based violence against women and the disabled stand out. This racial