Misuse ends police
commission badges
on Big Isle

HILO >> Following alleged misuse of their identification badges, members of the Hawaii County Police Commission returned the badges to the police department this week as requested by Police Chief Lawrence Mahuna.

Mahuna acted on the advice of county lawyer Lincoln Ashida, who wrote a letter citing two instance of misuse.

Ashida referred to an incident In August in which Commissioner Pete Muller, while at a stoplight, walked up to the car window of a woman who he said sped past another car on the shoulder of a Hilo street.

Muller said he showed the woman his badge and told her that he was going to report her illegal driving. The woman said he was shouting, frightening her.

A few years ago, Commissioner Daniel Kama used his badge improperly to get early boarding on an interisland flight, Ashida wrote in his letter to Mahuna and commission chairman Horace Hara. The function of police commissioners is to advise the department, according to the county charter. They have no law enforcement powers.

There is "no legitimate purpose" in commissioners having badges, Ashida wrote.

The badge turn-in ends a practice of issuing the badges, which apparently goes back many decades. Several persons contacted by the Star-Bulletin weren't sure when it started.

But state Rep. Helene Hale (Pahoa-Kalapana), who held a post equivalent to mayor of the Big Island in the 1960s, said the commission itself existed for several decades prior to Hawaii statehood.