ACLU Files Suit Against Honolulu Police

The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii has filed a lawsuit against the city of Honolulu and the Police Department alleging that an officer violated agency policy when he placed under arrest a teen who had gotten into an altercation with his son.

According to Hawaii Public Radio , ACLU’s suit charged that Officer Kirk Uemura did not read the 15-year-old child his Miranda rights or notify his parents when he made the arrest in 2018.

The boy's parents filed a complaint, and the ACLU quickly became involved in the following investigation. The department said that it had taken corrective action but the ACLU attorneys were not satisfied with the outcome, or the lack of clarity on what the "corrective action" actually was.

ACLU attorney Wookie Kim said "We don't know what corrective action was taken. We don't know who that action was taken against. And we don't know when, if at all, such action actually occurred."

This is the first ACLU lawsuit against the Honolulu Police Department in more than two decades.