Honolulu Police Department releases body camera footage in only a fraction of deadly encounters

In 2018, the Honolulu Police Department for the first time released body camera footage of a fatal officer-involved shooting. But since then, it’s been a rarity, with HPD sharing footage in just three of 22 deadly incidents.

In some instances, the department released surveillance video or footage from other sources when body camera footage wasn’t available. And in the case of the shooting of 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap in 2021, the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office released body camera footage after a judge ordered it. In other cases, it wasn’t clear whether the media or public requested the footage.

But in many cases, body camera footage wasn’t available because the officers involved in the incident were part of specialized units exempt from wearing the devices. In a few recent instances, the department has declined to release video, citing ongoing investigations.

HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu said in a statement that videos are released upon request unless it would “hamper the investigation or jeopardize successful conferral and acceptance of the case for prosecution.”

She also said the department is considering whether it should start issuing cameras to officers who are now exempt, such as plainclothes officers in the Crime Reduction Unit, which performs special assignments aimed at community problems and crime.

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Some groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, have raised concerns that the cameras, which have become more widespread over the last 10 years, aren’t as effective at preventing use-of-force incidents as was once thought and could contribute to greater police surveillance of the public.

But experts say releasing body camera footage quickly whenever possible helps build public trust, and withholding it for too long can create suspicion.

“I think it benefits the department and it benefits the communities and the citizens they serve,” said Jack Rinchich, president of the United States Law Enforcement Foundation. “It provides a level of accountability and investigative evidence that otherwise would not have been available.”

HPD’s History With Body Cams

HPD began its body camera pilot program in 2017 and rolled out the devices to more officers in the following years. Today, 1,200 officers in the traffic and patrol divisions use body cameras, Yu said. About 600 officers, including those in administrative, specialized and support roles, do not wear the devices.

The first officer-involved shooting to be captured on body camera occurred on Oct. 7, 2018, when police shot and killed a machete-wielding man near the State Capitol. The department released the footage about a week later.

Of the 22 deadly encounters with Honolulu police that have occurred since, the department has released body camera footage of three of them — the 2019 shooting of Dustin Spencer, the 2019 shooting of Dana Brown and the 2021 killing of Lindani Myeni. In the Myeni case, video was released from two of three officers on scene because one of the officers did not activate his camera until after the shooting.

In at least seven of the deadly encounters that have occurred since 2018, the department said footage wasn’t available because the officers involved hadn’t yet been equipped with cameras or they were exempt from wearing the devices.

An officer-involved shooting in Waikiki earlier this month involved specialized officers who weren’t required to wear body cameras, Chief Joe Logan said. But the department was analyzing video footage from door cameras in nearby apartments, he said.

The department has still not released body camera footage from two incidents earlier this year, citing ongoing investigations — a Jan. 1 pursuit and shooting that left the suspect, Sidney Tafokitau, dead and two officers injured; and the Jan. 25 shooting of Brandan Maroney, who was walking in the middle of Farrington Highway with a knife. It also has yet to release video from the June 23, 2023, killing of a man who picked up a rifle left unattended by an officer during a standoff.

Advocates say body camera footage is valuable for accountability in all use-of-force incidents, not only officer-involved shootings.

A forceful arrest by multiple plainclothes officers on Likelike Highway on July 16 was captured on video by a bystander and shared on social media.

Logan discussed the incident during a Honolulu Police Commission meeting earlier this month and defended the officers’ actions, though he said the arrest was under review by the department’s Professional Standards Office. He also said no body camera footage was available because the officers were part of the Crime Reduction Unit.

The unit has been sidelined since the incident, and the officers are currently supplementing patrol, according to Hawaii News Now. Yu did not respond to questions about the reason for the decision or the current status of the unit.

During the meeting, commission member Carrie Okinaga suggested the department look into smaller, less cumbersome cameras that Crime Reduction Unit officers could wear. She said having footage is valuable after incidents that draw so much public interest.

“The vast majority of time, in my personal experience, when we have access to that it’s been exculpatory for the police officers,” she said. “It helps put the situation in context, it provides what they were experiencing at the moment and how force was reasonable or unreasonable.”

Logan said he was open to body cameras for CRU officers. The officers are plainclothes but they do wear other items to identify themselves as police officers, such as vests or badges around their necks.

“Once you don a uniform or a piece of equipment that says, ‘I am now a police officer,’ I think that’s probably an appropriate time to use a body-worn camera,” Logan said. “It’s a discussion we’re having.”

Other commissioners asked the chief to release information about incidents as quickly as possible to help dispel misinformation that can spread among the public.

“I would continue to encourage the department to release appropriate information as they can just because it seems that we’re at a place now where people are really hungry for that stuff,” said commission Vice Chair Kenneth Silva. “Sometimes when there isn’t any accurate information, stuff may get out that may be inaccurate, and that doesn’t help the situation.”

Do Body Cameras Even Change Behavior?

A 2018 review by the Department of Justice of 70 studies of body camera programs in different cities found in many instances, the cameras had no effect on improving officer safety or reducing civilian complaints.

“Further research is essential to determine the value of body-worn camera use and potentially the more effective ways body-worn cameras could be deployed,” the review says. “Given the growing use of body-worn cameras, it would be best to build in rigorous evaluations as law enforcement agencies expand their use of this technology.”

In Honolulu, the number of use-of-force incidents has increased slightly in recent years from 2,354 in 2019 to 2,648 in 2022, according to the department’s data dashboard. Data from years before body cameras were in use was not available.

Still, members of the public have come to expect to see body camera footage after incidents, said Anthony Finnell, president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.

Many major departments have implemented policies to release footage within a certain period of time. Chicago police must release body camera footage within 60 days of a police shooting unless a judge orders otherwise. The New York Police Department releases footage within 30 days of a critical incident and Los Angeles Police Department within 45 days.

Salmah Rizvi, executive director of the ACLU of Hawaii, said while her organization supports greater transparency around body cameras, she’s concerned about the potential for use of facial recognition technology. She also wants to see the department implement clearer policy on how its data is shared and stored.

Yu said in a statement that HPD’s cameras do not use facial recognition. She said prosecutors have access to footage and it is shared with other law enforcement agencies as necessary.

Another factor that can reduce the effectiveness of body cameras is officers not turning them on when they’re supposed to. HPD’s body camera policy lays out when and how officers are supposed to activate their cameras, but violations of the policy have been a problem in the past.

Last year, six officers were disciplined and four had disciplinary measures in arbitration for failing to activate their body cameras, according to a disciplinary report submitted to the Legislature.

Despite concerns around body cameras, Rizvi said they’re still a powerful tool to help the public hold police accountable and footage should be more readily accessible.

“These are tools that are paid for with taxpayer dollars and the footage should also belong to the public,” she said.

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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.