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Honolulu police commissioners gave Chief Joe Logan a mostly positive review during his annual evaluation Wednesday but recommended for the second year in a row that he improve his department’s communications with the public and the media.

The evaluation focused on Logan’s second year as chief ending June 13.

Commissioners praised Logan for his leadership and his efforts to change the culture of the department from within. They also noted they’ve received a “lack or near lack” of anonymous complaints from department staff. They said the submission of anonymous complaints was more frequent under the previous chief, Susan Ballard.

Despite vacancies in the department continuing to hover around 400, commissioners commended Logan on his recruitment efforts. They noted initiatives such as moving the department to a 13-hour shift schedule three days a week, establishing a hiring incentive for police officers with Mayor Rick Blangiardi and targeting recruitment on student athletes and members of the military.

But vacancies at the middle level of department, including the ranks of corporal and sergeant, need to be addressed, the evaluation says. Around half of HPD’s sworn vacancies are for middle management positions ranging in rank from corporal to lieutenant.

“Chief recognizes the importance of adequate staffing, and recruiting appears to have trended upwards in the past year,” the evaluation says. “Overall, the leadership has demonstrated an amazing change in the approach to new ways of recruiting, recruit training, and development at the entry level.” 

But while commissioners noted Logan’s efforts to work on communications with the public, they stressed a need for continued improvement.

“The department falls short on proactive strategic communications planning and execution and 24-hour accessibility of information,” the evaluation says. “The Commission and the Chief have also discussed truncating the many levels of approval needed before information is released publicly, which creates delays in the dissemination of essential information. We encourage the Chief to prioritize improvement in this area.” 

Logan faced public criticism for the department’s lack of communication during an island-wide manhunt on Jan. 1 that ended in an officer-involved shooting. Police killed the suspect, Sidney Tafokitau, after he shot two officers. A bystander later filed a lawsuit against the police department saying he was beaten that day by multiple officers who mistook him for the suspect. 

Blangiardi said on his podcast at the time that he was blindsided by news of the beating, which he didn’t learn about until reading it in the press.

“At this point, I could not be any more dissatisfied,” he said on the podcast Jan. 25. 

Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters also criticized the department at the time for not keeping the public more informed as the situation developed throughout the day, especially because Tafokitau was considered armed and dangerous. The department posted one update on social media during the manhunt and pursuit.

Since then, the department has posted more frequently on social media and hosted press conferences routinely after major incidents and officer-involved shootings. But commissioners have told Logan repeatedly during commission meetings that he needs to get more information out faster to the public to prevent the spread of misinformation.

After a recent officer-involved shooting in Waianae, Logan faced questions from reporters about why it had taken him so long to hold a press conference. The shooting occurred at around 6 p.m. on Aug. 14, and Logan addressed the media at 1 p.m. the following day.

Transparency has been an issue in Logan’s administration since he assumed the role of chief in May 2022. At the time, the department admitted it withheld public information about the arrest of Logan’s son until his father could be notified.

Last year, in the evaluation of his first 12 months as chief, commissioners also highlighted his need to communicate more with the public and encouraged him to seek additional media training.

Logan said during Wednesday’s commission meeting, which he attended remotely, that he intended to continue working to improve communications.

“I also need to do some more work on our public information … and develop that completely so we have a format for strategic communications and getting ahead of information and telling our story,” he said. “We’ve done better than we have before, but I think we could still improve a lot more than that.”

Logan also said he wanted to boost morale and improve some of the “negative culture that’s ingrained in the department.”

Overall on his evaluation, commissioners marked “meets expectations” 29 times and “exceeds expectations” eight times. They did not mark “below expectations” in any category.

Commission Chair Doug Chin said commissioners received overwhelmingly positive feedback from other law enforcement officials in the state about Logan’s ability to collaborate and cooperate with other agencies.

But he also emphasized the need for the department to communicate more openly with the public and the media.

“You are a spokesperson for the department,” he said. “You are here to provide us all with information and also to provide us with comfort and the ability to realize that law enforcement is handling things and we’re all feeling safe.”