Police Unions Bargain For More Secrecy
An analysis by The Guardian found that police unions across the U.S. try to keep officer聽misconduct under wraps. The same is true in Hawaii.
Police unions across the country have been able to keep officer misconduct under wraps for years by negotiating contract clauses that limit access to disciplinary records, according to from The Guardian.
The news agency got its hands on dozens of contracts from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) that were who breached the FOP website.
About one-third of those leaked contracts included provisions that often mandated the destruction of civilian complaints, departmental investigations and disciplinary actions after a set period of time.
Limiting public access to misconduct was also a negotiating point for many unions as were mandates that departments be responsible for investigating their own.
Most experts quoted by the newspaper said this effectively undermined the role of civilian oversight of the police:
Samuel Walker, a professor in criminology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, said there was 鈥渘o justification鈥 for the cleansing of officers鈥 records, which could contain details of their use of force against civilians.
鈥淭he public has a right to know,鈥 Walker said. 鈥淚f there was a controversial beating, we ought to know what action was actually taken. Was it a reprimand? A suspension?鈥
Walker said that while an officer鈥檚 whole personnel file should not be readily available to the public outside of court proceedings, records of disciplinary action should be.
This all sounds familiar doesn鈥檛 it?
Police misconduct is notoriously secret in Hawaii, so much so that even officers who commit egregious and criminal acts are allowed to keep their jobs without the public ever finding who they are or what exactly they did to get in trouble.
The state鈥檚 powerful police union, the , has been influential in keeping this information under wraps both at the bargaining table the state Capitol.
In 1995, SHOPO was successful in creating an exemption in the state鈥檚 public records law that essentially locked up county police officers鈥 disciplinary files unless they were discharged. This exemption is not afforded to any other public employee at the state or county level.
But now after decades of opacity, there seems to be a willingness to get rid of the exemption for county police as a means to increase public accountability.
The Legislature is considering a bill to eliminate the exemption and open up the disciplinary files of any officer who has been suspended or fired for misconduct.
Civil Beat has also filed a lawsuit against the Honolulu Police Department that could do the same. The police union is now fighting the case on behalf of its membership. A decision is pending at the Hawaii Supreme Court.
For even more on the lack of transparency surrounding officer misconduct read Civil Beat鈥檚 five-part investigative series In The Name Of The Law.
