The search for the next Hawaii County police chief and the department’s involvement with federal immigration enforcement were the hot topics at a recent Police Commission meeting at the County Council chambers in Hilo.
The search is necessitated by the commission’s acceptance last month of an emailed resignation by Chief Ben Moszkowicz, which he attempted to withdraw, without success. Moszkowicz is still nominally the Big Island’s police chief, but he’s on vacation until Aug. 31, his final day as the island’s top cop. The commission allowed Moszkowicz to remain in the position until month’s end so he can collect a check from the state’s retirement system.
Deputy Chief Reed Mahuna is the acting chief and will become interim chief when Moszkowicz’s exit becomes final and the search begins.
At the commission’s monthly meeting Friday, Michelle Simmons, a county human resources manager, laid out the mechanics of the last chief search in 2022, when Moszkowicz, then a Honolulu Police Department major, was hired.
Simmons said the Hawaii Police Department position was posted online as open for almost all of August. She also said advertisements for the opening were published on four Sundays in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, West Hawaii Today and Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Commissioners Wendy Botelho and Lloyd Enriquez, both of whom in July voted — along with commissioners Jacob Tavares and Greg Yamada, who weren’t present Friday — to reject Moszkowicz’s attempt to rescind his resignation, said hiring locally was important to them.
When Deputy Corporation Counsel Sinclair Salas-Ferguson said the commission can waive a requirement that an applicant for the chief’s position be a Hawaii resident for at least a year, Botelho replied, “I don’t want it waived. I want it to be longer.”
Enriquez echoed Botelho’s concern that the new chief be familiar with the local culture.
“A person could come from Wyoming, for instance, with no understanding of our culture or our people here — and we expect them to come here and do an effective job? I don’t know …,” Enriquez said. “That’s why I have a problem with waiving that one year. I just don’t feel right about that. Maybe we should put that back into play, because I don’t feel comfortable with someone just coming in … and having no understanding of our way of life here.”
The top concern with majority of testifiers on Friday was that whomever becomes top cop in Hawaii County not enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Homeland Security and/or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which reportedly raided coffee farms in West Hawaii and removed a first grader from Honduras from Konawaena Elementary School.
Sam Guckenheimer, a software engineer, testified he wants a new chief to “rescind all agreements with DHS (and) immigration agencies immediately upon taking office, including the MOUs with ICE of March 16, 2017, and Nov. 15, 2024.” Guckenheimer added he wants a pledge that a new chief will not enter any new MOUs with DHS “unless they require all federal agents to comply with all the policies and procedures that apply to HPD officers under state and county law” and “unless they agree to ensure that their faces are unmasked, they wear a badge or proper law enforcement identification, and that their names and agencies are visible and clearly legible.”
In her testimony, Tina Marie Evens raised the specter of “abductors cosplaying as ICE agents.”
“Even the rumor of their presence throws this entire community into fear and anxiety, unnecessarily,” Evens said.
“The next police chief must be willing to act when so-called ICE agents break the law, preventing them from operating unchecked in our police stations and streets (and) protecting due process for everyone, regardless of their immigration status,” she added. “ICE is not here for hardened criminals. Our courts already handle that. They are bounty hunters driven by cruelty, operating on our taxpayer dollars. This commission has a choice: appoint leadership that serves the people of Hawaii or enable state-sanctioned violence.”
Patrice Belcher, who described herself as a keiki o ka ‘aina (child of the land), also highlighted the bogeyman aspect of recent immigration enforcement by the feds.
“The ICE agents are coming in masks,” Belcher said. “They do not sometimes have warrants. They sometimes have their arms drawn. They sometimes victimize people who are innocent. … The acceptance of funds from ICE is not pono for our ‘aina. … What’s happening on the outside and coming to our shores is not aloha. So, I ask that you consider, with your new police chief, that you look for the pono and you look for the aloha.”
Ruth Robison, retired international student adviser at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, said her former post provided her “a lot of experience with immigration regulations.” She decried President Donald Trump’s call for the creation of a “deportation force” to remove immigrants from the U.S. on an unprecedented scale, using federal agents, the military and state and local law enforcement.
“There are agreements between local police and the federal government relating to crimes like drug trafficking and sex trafficking that protect our community,” Robison said. “However, cooperating with Immigration to report, detain and deport immigrants does not. I am asking that the commission incorporate specific questions about enforcing federal immigration laws in the written application and oral interview process for full transparency and accountability.
“Please also hold candidate interviews in a public forum that’s both in-person and Zoom.”
Patti Cook of Waimea, who also opposes local police assisting with immigration enforcement, said she “really would urge prioritizing hiring local” in the search for a new chief.
“And by local, if I had my preference, it would be somebody from this island who understands the difference between Milolii and Kalapana and Niulii,” Cook added. “Maybe the idea of protecting with aloha ought to be on your mind, because aloha really embodies the way we treat each other — being calm, practicing integrity and really understanding respect and diversity.”
Source: The Garden Island