Kokua Line

By June Watanabe

Friday, February 20, 1998

Call district commander
if you see cops misbehave

I am a resident of Mililani who witnessed a police officer in a marked car abuse his blue lights. I was stopped at an intersection at Mililani High School, in back of the officer.

After waiting at the red light less than 15 seconds, he turned on his lights, went through the intersection, then turned off his lights. To me, what he did was not right. My mom and friends also witnessed this. Is there some kind of penalty for this behavior?

When you have a complaint like this, it really helps to give specifics.

Jean Motoyama, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department, said the officer could very well have received a call for help, in which case he would have had to turn on his flashing lights.

But with no specifics, she couldn't respond to what the "penalty" would be. She said next time, call the commander of the district in which you see an alleged violation. In Mililani, that would be the Wahiawa station.

In general, however, complaints about Honolulu police can be directed to the Honolulu Police Commission or to HPD's Internal Affairs Division. The former looks into charges that an officer was threatening or physically or verbally abusive, but only if complaints come in within 60 days of an alleged incident. Otherwise, the Internal Affairs Division will investigate, then pass on its findings to an administrative review board.

In a previous column, you quoted a GTE Hawaiian Tel spokesman as saying a 62-cent rural service surcharge was going to be folded into an 11.23 percent general rate increase approved by the Public Utilities Commission.

But the 62-cent charge is still on my bills, and when I talked to the Hawaiian Tel Business Sales Center, they said the 62 cents is still being charged, despite the 11.23 percent increase. Who's correct?

We're sorry for the confusion; no one except you spotted the discrepancy!

Again, the PUC approved the 62-cent-a-month Rural Service Program fee to help pay for upgrading rural phone service. Half the cost was to be paid by 2,500 or so rural customers, mainly on the Big Island, and the other half, the rest of HawTel's customers.

In October, "the costs that were originally supposed to be incurred by the rural customers" were folded into a PUC-approved rate increase (from 10 percent to 11.23 percent), said Dean Matsuura, HawTel director of regulatory affairs.

So the 62-cent surcharge paid by rural customers was deleted, but the majority of customers, like you, will see it as a separate charge each month through August.

The PUC "still must decide on specific rates based on a $23.6 million increase we were already awarded," Matsuura said. "The 11.23 percent surcharge is a temporary mechanism to recover the increase and it will continue until the commission decides on specific rates in the rate case."

Exactly when the PUC will make that decision is uncertain.

Auwe

To the office issuing state ID cards. You cannot read or see the birth date and name on my new card. The only thing legible is the Social Security number.

(If that was how the card came out, you should have complained about it immediately and "we would do it again," said Liane Moriyama, administrator of the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, which issues the state ID card. (Sometimes, it's just a matter of changing the printer ribbon, she said. The office is getting a new ID system, so that should not be a problem in the future, she said.)

Auwe

To the woman who took my beige handbag from the women's restroom at Pearlridge Shopping Center about 1 p.m. Tuesday Jan. 27. -- G.J.