ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ

Every Sunday morning, police officers — in uniform — direct traffic near emptying church parking lots. They work private security and provide other services for hire. The Honolulu Police Department even has a name for the practice — the “.”

So what’s the big deal about the “gift” from the Waikiki Business Improvement District Association that bought $75,000 worth of police protection from the HPD?

Readers have asked that question in the weeks since we published our first story about the department’s acceptance of the gift, with approval from the Honolulu City Council. The debate this year wasn’t the first, as the gift had come under fire before.

One key difference between the hiring of off-duty officers and the Waikiki business group’s gift is that the “Special Duty Program” pays officers to complete specific tasks during specific hours. That program is easier to track than a lump sum of $75,000 earmarked for generally improved service in a neighborhood over an undetermined time period.

It’s not yet clear what services precisely are included for that cost — how many patrol officers, how many overtime shifts, how many citations? The business group told Civil Beat Tuesday that it gets a monthly report from police that answers some of those questions. Civil Beat has requested copies of those reports for this year.

Civil Beat started asking HPD for detailed answers almost two months ago, but until now the department has said some data aren’t easy to find.

Other cities have handled similar issues differently than Honolulu. In Atlantic City, N.J., the mayor rejected special treatment for private business interests. In San Francisco, the ethics commission allows gifts, but doesn’t allow the donor to dictate how or where the money is used.

A national expert on government ethics told Civil Beat that these types of public-private partnerships undermine accountability and blur the line between public interest and private interests.

However, Honolulu’s ethics chief says it’s a public policy issue, and not yet one where special treatment has raised a red flag for the commission.

The Idea Behind The Program

The business group says it got the idea for a donation to the HPD after looking at similar programs elsewhere, specifically . Its first donation came in 2006.

The nonprofit association evaluated its “base line services agreement” with the HPD and other city government agencies. For example, HPD Capt. Andrew Lum on Tuesday said there are 12 assigned beats in Waikiki, and one officer is typically assigned to each beat. The business group has targeted “streetscape maintenance” and hospitality and safety as programs it wants to supplement.

About a dozen “Aloha Ambassadors” in bright green shirts answer visitors’ questions in Waikiki every day, and can even help keep the area safe and secure. But they’re not police officers and don’t have enforcement powers, and the business association decided regular gifts of $75,000 or $150,000 to the police department would be a good idea.

The association specifically asked HPD to enforce laws that limit activity on Waikiki sidewalks. Violations include aggressive panhandling, unlicensed peddling, animal solicitation and prostitution.

Lum in October told Civil Beat the gift is used to staff officers in Waikiki on their off-duty time “to address security issues that could affect business activity in the area.”

“The Honolulu Police Department provides law enforcement services based on the needs of each community and the fluctuation of crime trends as they occur,” he said in a written statement provided by an HPD spokeswoman. “The department has allowed for some time the hiring of off-duty officers in a special-duty capacity to perform certain law enforcement activities available to the general public. These assignments often involve security, traffic control, and vehicular escorts to name a few.”

Waikiki Business Improvement District Association Executive Director Jan Yamane said Tuesday she gets a monthly report from HPD that details how much of the money was spent on extra foot patrols and how many contacts were initiated, how many arrests were made and how many citations were issued.

Yamane said HPD has discretion on how to best use the funds, though the expectation is that they’re being used to improve safety and security on the busiest sidewalks in Waikiki.

“We don’t micromanage HPD. We allow them to spend the money as they see fit,” said Paul Kosasa, chair of the Waikiki Business Improvement District Association Board of Directors and President and CEO of ABC Stores. “It’s really hard to measure the true benefit. … A police presence changes behavior in a positive way.

“Bottom line, they (the businesses) want to have a safe, enjoyable walking experience in Waikiki, and that’s what drives the board’s decision.”

Yamane said the organization eventually decided after conversations with HPD to give donations rather than hire special off-duty officers. That’s because the business group wanted to use officers already stationed in the area who are already knowledgeable about the landscape, the businesses’ needs and the familiar faces on Waikiki’s sidewalks.

“That was the most efficient use of resources,” she said.

The business group has continued to give the HPD money over the years because it believes there are benefits. Within days of the gift being accepted by the Council in early October, police had already stepped up their enforcement of some obscure city ordinances.

On Oct. 17, according to the arrest log, a 72-year-old woman was arrested on Kalakaua Avenue for violating (Section 29-13) regulating the use of animals to solicit money. A 50-year-old man was arrested for the same crime two days later on Kaiulani Avenue. Neither had listed local addresses, raising the possibility that they are homeless. On Oct. 20, a 25-year-old Honolulu man was arrested for peddling without a city-issued peddler’s license (Section 29-6) on Kalia Road.

In opposing the acceptance of the gift, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii said it has received complaints about “interference with protected First Amendment activities (and harassment of those engaged in protected First Amendment activities) on Waikiki’s sidewalks.”

How Do Other Cities Handle It?

Honolulu isn’t the only city to face questions about a gift from the private sector.

Starting in 2010, technology, time and resources valued at $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation, the largest in the foundation’s history. That this fall when New York police used sometimes questionable tactics to clear from a Manhattan park the Occupy Wall Street protesters who had been critical of JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions.

Craig Holman is an ethics expert and government affairs lobbyist with , a Washington DC-based nonprofit organization that bills itself as the people’s voice in the nation’s capital, said such donations are becoming more and more common.

“We are seeing this happen more frequently at the federal level. It is fairly common at the state and local level around the country. And always for the same reason: Politicians don’t want to raise taxes,” Holman told Civil Beat. “It raises serious ethics concerns. The first and the most obvious one is favoritism. When a private entity makes a substantial contribution to a governmental agency, it always comes with strings attached.

“It raises a number of very serious conflicts of interest. Clearly, in many cases, it does not promote the public interest. It’s a very troubling trend that we see happening more as budgets get cut back further.”

Some jurisdictions have swung the pendulum back the other way.

The mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey, another city heavily dependent on tourist dollars, this fall issued an executive order banning on-duty police officers from patrolling the many casino parking garages in his city.

The practice had started after a fatal carjacking in one of those private parking garages. And while the mayor, Lorenzo Langford, declined to explain the reason for the policy, his order said the city government’s responsibility is “first and foremost” to its residents, according to in the local newspaper, The Press of Atlantic City.

In San Francisco, the city accepts gifts but maintains complete authority over how the gift is to be used, according to the San Francisco Ethics Commission. That means in the case of a $75,000 gift from a business organization, the police would have the authority to spend that money however it saw fit, not necessarily to benefit those who gave the gift.

Honolulu Ethics Commission chief Chuck Totto said the gift amounts to a public policy issue and a decision about how the HPD allocates its resources. For now, the Ethics Commission has no role to play.

“If we start to see indicators of special treatment, that’s where we would come in,” Totto said.

Holman, the ethics lobbyist in Washington, said concerns about a conflict of interest are valid.

“This can impose a serious conflict of interest when it comes to how the HPD handles public affairs and very well may not provide a public benefit. Instead, it provides a benefit to the private enterprise that is financing and directing the program,” Holman said.

He said it could lead to a situation where government can rely on the recurring gift from the business group and cut back on its own expenditures on police services. That would negatively impact everybody who doesn’t have the means to pay for extra protection.

‘We’re Not Out To Get Anybody’

For its part, the Waikiki Business Improvement District Association disagrees with the suggestion that it’s taking patrols from other areas or that its economic advantages afford it special treatment from the city government.

“We’re not out to get anybody,” said Yamane, the association’s executive director. She said visitor experience directly impacts Waikiki’s ability to be the state’s economic engine, and that it’s in everybody’s best interest to make sure Waikiki’s sidewalks are safe and secure.

“I do believe the other areas of the island do benefit from the enhanced patrols that are paid for by the donation,” she said. “Our moneys supplement the base services the city provides, which is what we were established to do.”

Yamane said the organization tried to impart that to then-Council member Barbara Marshall back in 2006 when the gift first came under attack, but that the two sides had to agree to disagree.

Kosasa, the association’s board chair, said Waikiki’s business community has stepped forward to help address an important issue.

“It takes leadership to establish a neighborhood watch or weed-and-seed or any other program that provides communities with a benefit,” he said. “For the other neighborhoods, I don’t think it’s a matter of wealth or money but a matter of leadership.”

— Nanea Kalani contributed to this report.