“You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find, you get what you need.” I’m fairly certain that this pearl of wisdom from the Rolling Stones was not aimed at the Honolulu Police Commission. That being stated, it’s advice that could radically improve the results of the commission’s main mission: hiring the Honolulu Police Department’s chief of police.
What’s ironic is that the commission constantly lets the world know its principal reason for existing is to hire the chief. A responsibility they jealously guard. Yet, commissioners face two fundamentally basic problems: they’ve convinced themselves they know what they want, yet they haven’t the foggiest idea of what HPD needs.
They don’t know HPD’s core strengths, weaknesses, where investment is needed, or how HPD stacks up against other departments in areas like training, policy, or community policing strategies. Anyone who followed the cute, jovial gabfests between Arthur (Joe) Logan and the commission can tell you these topics were never examined…