Honolulu Police Department
The Honolulu Police Department is the principal law enforcement agency of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, headquartered in the Alapa'i Police Headquarters in Honolulu CDP.
Officially recognized as a part of the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1846, the police department serves the entire island of O'ahu, covering over of territory, with just over 900,000 residents and over four million annual visitors. The island is divided into 8 patrol districts which are then subdivided into sectors and beats. As of March 2025, HPD has more than 2,500 employees, 1,722 of which are full-time sworn officers with a deficit of 475 sworn officers. A 2003 Department of Justice report listed HPD as the 20th largest police department in the nation.
Unlike the other 49 states, Hawaii does not have a state police agency per se or individual city agencies; law enforcement is the jurisdiction of the individual county governments. HPD is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and received the CALEA TRI-ARC Excellence Award from them in 2006.
History
Predecessors
In 1840, the Supreme Court of Kamehameha III established the first constitution for the Kingdom of Hawaii. The constitution paved the way for the Act to Organize the Executive Departments of the Government signed on April 27, 1846. The law created the office of marshal of the kingdom, the highest ranking police officer in the Hawaiian nation. He nominated, instructed, supervised and controlled the sheriffs of the kingdom of which there were four, one for each administrative region of Kaua'i, O'ahu, Mau'i and Hawaii. Each sheriff administered a corps of constables officially appointed by the four royal governors. Constables wore a distinct police insignia that consisted of a scarlet crown with the initials KIII in honor of Kamehameha III. The insignia was worn on the arm and on a red band on their police hats.In 1893, the Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown by the Provisional Government of Hawaii which quickly deposed the marshal of the kingdom and dissolved the constabulary. In 1894, the newly proclaimed Republic of Hawaii formed its own police system.
After a few years under the governance of the Territory of Hawaii, four county governments were established out of the original administrative regions of the monarchy. John Thomas Kelly was the first Sheriff of Honolulu under this system, and had served as an engineer in the 2nd Regiment during the Spanish-American War. His diary is on display in the Hawaiian National Archives. In 1905, each county established a police department led by an appointed sheriff. Police officers wore an octagon-shaped police badge similar in appearance to those of other police departments of the period. In the 1920s the badge was redesigned with an eagle on top.
In Hawaii, the Office of Sheriff falls under the Sheriff Division of the Hawaii Department of Law Enforcement. It is the functional equivalent of a state police department and has the distinction of making Hawaii the only U.S. state without an officially named state police department and one of two with a statewide Sheriff's Department. Although the Sheriff Division's jurisdiction covers the entire state, its primary functions are judicial and executive protection, security at the Hawaii State Capitol, law-enforcement at Hawaii's airports, narcotics enforcement, prisoner transportation, the processing and service of court orders and warrants, and patrol of certain roads and waterways in conjunction with other state agencies.
Additional statewide law enforcement is provided by the Department of Land and Natural Resources which patrols State lands, State Parks, historic sites, forest reserves, aquatic life and wildlife areas, coastal zones, Conservation districts, State beaches, as well as county ordinances involving county parks. The division also enforces laws relating to firearms, ammunition, and dangerous weapons. DLNR officers have full police powers.
Establishment
In response to a crime wave in the late 1920s and early 1930s as a combined result of increased racial tensions between whites and local ethnics and the outcome of the Massie case involving too much political influence on the Police, Territorial Governor Lawrence M. Judd appointed a Governor's Advisory Committee on Crime. The committee recommended that a police commission be appointed by the mayor of Honolulu whose duty would be to appoint a chief of police and to supervise the operating of the police department. The committee also advised that the office of sheriff should be retained and charged with the duty of serving civil process, of maintaining the Honolulu prison system and to act as coroner. On January 22, 1932, a special session of the territorial legislature passed Act 1, establishing the Honolulu Police Commission and creating the office of chief of police. Thus was born the modern Honolulu Police Department as it exists today.Martial law
After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Territorial Governor Joseph B. Poindexter declared martial law and Hawaii fell under military governance under the Judge Advocate General's Corps. The Honolulu Police Department became a deputized military force. The word "Emergency" was etched above the "Honolulu" on the seven-point star badges of police officers. For the duration of World War II, the Honolulu Police Department was forced to impose restrictions on civil liberties and hand people over for trial by a military judge. Martial law ended after the end of the war in 1945.The San José State Spartans football team served with the Honolulu Police Department for the duration of World War II; the team had played a game against the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Warriors, but were stranded in Hawaii after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Modernization
The first instance of modernization came in 1952 with the introduction of the Honolulu Police Department's current badge. It was designed by Detective Alfred Karratti and embodies Hawaiian tradition and culture in its motifs. One feature that Detective Karratti kept was the use of the Pūloʻuloʻu or kapu staffs. They are symbols of law and order from ancient Hawaii.In 1976 Sister Roberta Julie Derby became the first female police chaplain in the U.S. and would later go on to win the medal of valor for defusing a hostage situation.
The most aggressive programs of modernization for the Honolulu Police Department came in the 1990s. It was furnished with a fleet of new Ford Crown Victoria police cars equipped with on-board computers and a fleet of BMW police motorcycles. Officers also have the choice of using their own private vehicle for law enforcement duties as part of a subsidized program. The vehicle has sirens installed and removable blue police light which is put on the roof of the officers' car. On October 16, 1992, the Honolulu Police Department opened its multimillion-dollar state-of-the-art police headquarters in downtown Honolulu. The building was called Hale Maka'i and featured the latest technical advances of its time including a DNA crime lab unit, one of the first of its kind in the nation.
Corruption and misconduct
In October 2015, a former HPD officer was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for an "unprovoked attack" on two men in a game room.In 2016, a retired police officer pleaded guilty to lying under oath as part of a conspiracy to frame a man for stealing a mailbox from the home of Police Chief Louis Kealoha.
In 2017, Chief Louis Kealoha retired from the police department amid an FBI investigation into corruption and conspiracy. In June 2019, a jury in federal court convicted Kealoha of using their law enforcement positions in an attempt "to frame Katherine Kealoha's uncle for stealing the couple's mailbox in 2013" and subsequently lying to federal investigators. The Kealohas pleaded guilty in October 2019 to financial crimes arising from the mailbox theft ; two others were convicted in connection to the same case. In November 2020, Louis Kealoha was sentenced to serve 8 years in federal prison. Due to precautions related to the concurrent COVID-19 pandemic, Louis Kealoha was allowed to start his sentence in April 2021. His wife, Katherine, received a sentence of 13 years.
In 2018, Lieutenant Eric Yiu, a veteran detective who investigated financial crimes, was indicted on six felony counts of making false statements on his state tax returns. He pleaded guilty in March 2019, as part of a plea agreement, to filing fraudulent tax returns for three years, and May 2019, he was ordered to pay $11,654 for tax evasion, but avoided jail.
Patrol vehicles
The Honolulu Police Department has several new vehicles, such as the Ford Taurus Police Interceptor, Ford Explorer Police Interceptor, non-traditional police vehicle such as the Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry, and a few Ford Crown Victoria's are still in use, despite no longer being produced. HPD marked vehicles are white and blue.The Honolulu Police Department is one of the four police departments in the state of Hawaii, being Hawaii County Police on "the big island," Kauai Police Department, and Maui Police Department. Officers are permitted to purchase a vehicle for police patrol and for personal usage of any make and model, however it must be approved by the chief and must meet certain police department guidelines. The vehicles are unmarked and the officers receive payment for taking care of the vehicle including fuel payment. Although they are unmarked they can be easily identified by a small blue LED light on the roof of the vehicles. They are also equipped with sirens to be used for on duty only. Hawaii is the only US state in which police officers are permitted to use personal vehicles for official police businesses.
Rank structure and insignia
The Honolulu Police Department follows a paramilitary-like ranking structure. The ranks are identified as follows:| Rank | Insignia | Badge Color |
| Chief of Police | Gold. Rank inscribed on badge. Badge number is #1 | |
| Deputy Chief | Gold. Rank inscribed on badge | |
| Assistant Chief | Gold. Rank inscribed on badge | |
| Major | 3 kukui nuts on each shoulder | Gold. Rank inscribed on badge |
| Captain | 2 kukui nuts on each shoulder | Gold. Rank inscribed on badge |
| Lieutenant | 1 kukui nut on each shoulder | Gold. Rank inscribed on badge |
| Sergeant/Detective | Gold. Rank inscribed on badge | |
| Corporal | Image:South Carolina Highway Patrol Corporal Rank Chevrons.svg|center|35px | Silver. Rank inscribed on badge |
| Officer | No Insignia | Silver. Rank inscribed on badge |
Officers may have stars located on the right-side chest area of their uniform above their name tag. These do not indicate rank: each star represents five years of service with the Honolulu Police Department. All uniformed emergency response personnel in the State of Hawaii generally follow this practice, although it does not carry on from one agency to the next.