Name: Are Open-Book Tests Making It Too Easy To Become A Honolulu Police Officer?
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Are Open-Book Tests Making It Too Easy To Become A Honolulu Police Officer?

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Recruits at Honolulu’s police academy who are learning the fundamentals of law enforcement are now taking open-book tests to qualify them to become police officers.The city’s police school Ke Kula Makai Academy made the transition this past summer,“The change was made to put more emphasis on comprehension and critical thinking and less on rote and recall,” Yu said.The move is causing concern among some current and former police officers.“How much easier can you make it?” said You might as well hand out the badges.”Civil Beat asked HPD six times to speak with a department official who could explain the rationale behind the decision and what impact it may have. The department declined to make anyone available.The transition to open book comes as the department is bracing for a wave of retirements, according to several officers. The department is authorized to have 2,143 sworn positions. As of Dec. 14, it had 1,864 officers and 279Koanui and other officers said they interpret the change to open book as a way to fill those vacancies. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be the first time HPD lowered standards during an officer shortage.In 2019, Koanui got a $550,000 payout from the city after she – turning failing tests into passing ones – and then retaliating against her when she expressed concern. In a deposition for the lawsuit, originally filed in 2009, Susan Ballard, now HPD’s chief, said that she authorized the changing of scores in 2008 when she was a police major. The department was struggling with vacancies at the time.Randy Franklin, a retired Los Angeles Police Department sergeant who lives in Honolulu and , said the HPD shouldn’t lower its standards. That just invites mistakes and lawsuits that cost taxpayers, he said.“If you can’t remember the law in the academy, how are you going to apply it when you have a badge and a gun?” he asked.“However, he said no one can possibly memorize all the laws and policing procedures. In the real world, police sometimes have to look it up on the spot, and he said that’s actually a good thing.In general, Ross said that police academies provide a broad foundation of knowledge on which to build.“The way you build upon that is with real-world experience,” he said.But Koanui said that Honolulu police recruits have to learn a lot about the law, people’s rights and police procedures, and that’s all included on the academy’s tests.Recruits must pass 12 incremental exams to graduate from the academy.They need to study city and state laws covering everything from shoplifting to landlord-tenant issues; understand civil rights issues, including when they are allowed to search someone or enter a home with or without a warrant; and have a clear understanding of when they can arrest someone, Koanui said.Officers responding to domestic violence need to know whether there is justification to apprehend the perpetrator.It’s also important that police officers know how to interpret an offender’s state of mind – like whether they committed an offense intentionally or recklessly – because that impacts investigative and charging decisions, Koanui said. Even something as seemingly mundane as writing a report can make or break a case, she said.Koanui, who retired in 2018, said she doesn’t understand why the department would try to make the tests easier because very few people failed them when she worked there.Ironically, the open-book format is resulting in higher failure rates on academy tests, according to a source within the department who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The person said recruits fail to study and then spend so much time looking up information during the test that they run out of time.They’re allowed one retest of the 12 incremental exams. A second failure triggers expulsion. Most people who fail at first pass the second time, the source said.Honolulu isn’t the only city to use open-book tests in its police academy.last year after 10 recruits who took an open-book test admitted to cheating on it. A similar incident occurred among officers who took an open-book test in Atlanta in 2017, .During this election season, we hope that our coverage provides you with the information to make informed decisions on issues that you care deeply about.Whether it’s affordable housing, education or the environment, these issues depend on your vote, and&nbsp;our ability to report on them depends on your support.So, if you found value in our coverage,&nbsp;

Recruits at Honolulu’s police academy who are learning the fundamentals of law enforcement are now taking open-book tests to qualify them to become police officers.The city’s police school Ke Kula Makai Academy made the transition this past summer,“The change was made to put more emphasis on comprehension and critical thinking and less on rote and recall,” Yu said.The move is causing concern among some current and former police officers.“How much easier can you make it?” said You might as well hand out the badges.”Civil Beat asked HPD six times to speak with a department official who could...

Are Open-Book Tests Making It Too Easy To Become A Honolulu Police Officer?

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