HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Honolulu Police Department is accused of arresting people who haven’t been drinking at all and offered incentives for officers who made those arrests. Those claims are from a class action lawsuit filed in court Thursday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi claims Honolulu Police are arresting drivers for DUI even though they’re completely sober.
“Let me be clear, public safety matters, but falsely arresting people using unreliable observations or assumptions undermines that very safety,” said Salmah Rizvi, ACLU Hawaii executive director.
ACLU Hawaiʻi filed a class action lawsuit against the city and county of Honolulu, Chief Joe Logan, and seven individual officers who they say made false arrests. ACLU attorneys say from 2022 to 2024, HPD arrested 129 people who had a blood alcohol level of 0.00.
Of those, the ACLU says 15 were given tickets and three were charged with operating a vehicle while on drugs.
“So now, when I drive, I’m always nervous,” said Tanner Pangan, plaintiff. “Always nervous, and I don’t know which cops are out to get me, or, like, which cops are just … trying to get numbers in the system.”
“Because I felt like before I got arrested, I had an image that police officers are there to safeguard us, protect us, you know, especially those who are innocent,” said Ammon Fepuleai, plaintiff. “Yet that has completely changed my perception.”
ACLU claims the reasons for the false arrests are that the department gets federal funds for DUI enforcement and says officers were offered incentives.
“What we’ve been told is that supervisors for the night enforcement unit have told officers, if you make a DUI arrest, you can go home, and you’ll still get paid for your entire shift,” said Emily Hills, ACLU Hawaii senior attorney.
Attorneys also say officers who made more DUI arrests were given more opportunities for overtime. And those that did not were threatened with having their patrol cars taken away.
In a statement, Honolulu Police say they take these allegations seriously and have initiated a “comprehensive review” of all impaired driving arrests going back to 2021.
Here is the number of DUI arrests made by HPD:
2025 (~6 months): 735
2024: 1,573
2023: 2,399
2022: 2,543
2021: 2,461
HPD also says they did start a refresher training for DUI arrests in May 2024, before they were aware of any of the allegations from ACLU. They add that they will take appropriate actions should any misconduct be found.
The lawsuit isn’t asking for any monetary damages, but ACLU wants the court to say HPD’s practices are unconstitutional and unlawful and force them to make changes.
