Before federal authorities unveiled a corruption investigation into a high-ranking Maui police officer in August, Maui resident Marnie Masuda already had misgivings about police using surveillance technology like facial recognition and license plate-capturing software.

Now as Lt. Michael Vaituulala, the former head of the Maui Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit, faces federal bribery charges, she’s even more concerned about giving the police additional power.

“Before we can even think of surveillance of us, we have to look at making sure that the body that is going to surveil us is completely accountable and transparent,” said Masuda, the volunteer lead organizer for Maui Indivisible, the local chapter of the nationwide network focused on democracy and civil liberties.

The arrest of Vaituulala and the decision by the Maui Police Commission to place Police Chief John Pelletier on paid leave earlier this week have put fresh scrutiny on the Maui Police Department and raised questions over accountability.

“The reality is that in policing, allegations alone can significantly damage how officers are perceived by the public,” said Jonathan Frye, vice president of the State of Hawai‘i Organization of Police Officers. “That is why we believe fairness and transparency in the accountability process is critical to maintaining public trust and ultimately keeping our communities safe.”

The commission unanimously voted Wednesday to place Pelletier on paid leave while it conducts an investigation into his oversight of the Criminal Intelligence Unit after Vaituulala allegedly took bribes to protect chicken-fighting and drug operations. 

Pelletier and his attorney pushed back against the commission’s decision, noting that he was not accused of any wrongdoing and instead blaming Mayor Richard Bissen for trying to influence the commission because Bissen is allegedly the target of two criminal investigations. 

Bissen’s administration called Pelletier’s claims “completely false” and Commission Chair Frank Tam also said Bissen had no involvement in the commission’s decision. 

Tam said the commission is hiring an independent law firm to conduct the investigation, which will look into “the circumstances surrounding CIU” and “decisions that the chief has made.” He emphasized that the commission is not accusing the chief of any wrongdoing.

“The accusations that came out in the FBI’s complaint was really concerning because it was so wide-reaching, and we wanted to get to the bottom (of it),” said Tam, a retired Maui Fire Department battalion chief. “How could this have happened? And what led to it?”

Tam did not have an estimated timeline for the investigation but said the commission expects to soon finalize a contract with the law firm.

Despite Pelletier’s protests over being put on leave, the move made sense to Nicholas Chagnon, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Hawai‘i-West O‘ahu who has been researching police misconduct in Hawai‘i since 2015.

“The police chief is the top executive of the police department, and if there’s widespread corruption within the department then … there’s reason to believe there’s a serious problem of leadership and oversight,” Chagnon said. “It seems quite appropriate to me to put the top executive on administrative leave.”

The Police Department’s public relations crisis comes right around the five-year mark of Pelletier’s tenure on Maui. Pelletier was a former Las Vegas police captain before being selected for the job. His outsider status was seen as an asset by some police commissioners and elected officials who hoped he would clean up the force.

At the time, the department was dealing with fallout over claims by an officer that members of the Criminal Intelligence Unit had kidnapped and unlawfully interrogated him over a leaked surveillance video showing then-Chief Tivoli Faaumu’s hit-and-run in a mall parking lot.

“I swore an oath to fight crime, to fight evil,” Pelletier said during a Friday news conference that was held in Honolulu rather than Maui. “I came here as an outsider to fight corruption. It’s amazing to me how hard evil fights back and it’s amazing how deep the corruption is.”

Pelletier pointed to improvements in recruiting for the short-staffed department, with officer ranks growing from 280 to more than 330. He noted the additions of the department’s first K9 unit and its first multi-mission helicopter. In 2024, the commission gave him a favorable performance review for his work on recruitment issues and long-term planning.  

But his tenure has also been marked by low officer morale, lawsuits by employees claiming gender discrimination and retaliation, and a clash with the mayor over a lawsuit that accused Pelletier of posing as a sheriff to a woman who reported being raped by Sean “Diddy” Combs. At the time, Bissen called for Pelletier to be placed on leave while the claims were investigated. The commission kept him on the job, and the lawsuit was eventually dropped. 

Pelletier has declared a “zero tolerance” policy for misconduct and has promised internal and external audits following the arrest of Vaituulala. 

His allegations against Bissen come less than a month before the Nov. 3 general election, but in his news conference Friday, Pelletier said he was “not the one who picked the timing of this.”

Bissen’s administration said he would let the investigation play out.

“Having served as both a prosecutor and a judge, the Mayor understands the importance of due process, independent investigations and public confidence in our justice system,” Maui County spokesperson Laksmi Abraham said. “Given the ongoing investigations, he believes it is important to respect the process and avoid speculation or prejudgement of any findings or outcomes.”

In a statement, Bissen acknowledged “the difficult responsibility” of the Maui Police Commission and said that he respected their authority and oversight of the chief under the Maui County Charter. 

“I also recognize the uncertainty this situation brings to the officers, employees and families of the Maui Police Department,” Bissen said. “I continue to stand with them and deeply appreciate the critical work they do every day to protect our people, serve our community and keep Maui Nui safe. They have my unwavering support and gratitude.”

Frye said that “without question, the last two months have been incredibly tough for Maui police officers,” who were “disheartened, disappointed and angry” when the corruption allegations came out. 

“Most police officers come to accept the fact that when an individual violates the community’s trust, their fellow officers’ trust, it damages the integrity of our entire profession,” Frye said.

Frye noted that “SHOPO has been outspoken that if allegations of wrongdoing are true, no one gets a free pass. You must be held accountable. And it is our responsibility, as the union representing the more than 2,600 officers who risk their lives to protect our community, to speak up when one of our own is in the wrong.”

Frye said frontline officers have strong relationships with the community, and that doesn’t change, “whether an officer is facing charges or even a Chief is in hot water.”

“Challenging times like these require us to invest in our relationships with the community,” Frye said. “However, we do not maintain that trust or earn it back by launching new programs or making new political promises. We do it by keeping our original promise: to protect the public and defend the law. We build trust through our actions. By approaching our jobs with the high standards of professionalism and integrity we set for ourselves.”

Residents like Masuda and her partner Jake Carton, a volunteer project organizer with Maui Indivisible, want to see more oversight of the police department, pointing not just to the incident with Vaituulala but also the recent arrest and indictment of veteran police officer Devin Schoeppner, who is facing multiple counts of sexual assault. 

They have pushed for the Maui County Council to use its power of the purse to conduct an audit of the department or conduct an investigation of its own.

“They have tremendously more resources to do it, and they’re also a lot more accountable because they’re elected, as opposed to a commission that gets appointed for a certain long term,” Carton said.

Masuda and Carton said the council also has the power to pass laws that can protect the public amid the rise of new technology and surveillance. Last month, a council committee backed a bill that would put safeguards on how police use automated license plate reader technology.

“These officers are human beings. … We shouldn’t be surprised that a human being falls down and is bad,” Carton said. “It’s bad on us if we don’t create ways to protect, safeguard our rights. And we don’t just … give someone a gun and just trust them completely. We live in a democracy. There should be transparency, accountability.”

Chagnon pointed out that police commissions are made up of volunteers who may not have the resources and staffing to do investigations, and he said the solution is independent, professional oversight bodies. 

“It’s not just that there are officers who engage in acts of corruption and misconduct, but there’s a public perception that they so infrequently are held accountable for it,” he said.

But attempts to strengthen oversight have run into hurdles in the past. He noted that in Honolulu, the Police Department and SHOPO strongly opposed an initiative to enhance the investigatory capacity of the Police Commission. 

“I think that the record of misconduct across the state suggests that we do need more accountability and more robust investigation,” Chagnon said, adding that “this isn’t just about punishing police. It’s about making sure that investigations are fair and thorough.”

Despite the recent incidents, Tam said he didn’t believe that the public has lost trust in MPD and didn’t see major issues with the department.

“When it comes to policing the community, I don’t think there’s anything that we find wrong,” Tam said. “There’s always room for improvement in any area of emergency response.”

He said the point of the investigation is to find out whether there are deeper systemic issues that need to be fixed. 

Chuck Spence, the co-chair of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Counsel created by Pelletier to represent marginalized groups in the community, disagreed with the decision to put Pelletier on leave because he has yet to be linked “to any of the nefarious activity.” He questioned whether the commission’s investigation could come up with better findings than the FBI.

“It’s just a waste of taxpayer dollars, and that’s what’s so upsetting,” Spence said.

Spence agreed that when the news broke about Vaituulala’s arrest, the “knee-jerk reaction is to have mistrust of what’s occurring,” but he thinks the community is still supportive of Pelletier as chief. 

“Yes, there are still very, very great concerns that still exist,” Spence said. “Based on what I’m hearing and seeing, I think that things have vastly improved.”

Council Chair Alice Lee acknowledged that the council has the power to investigate any department, but the council still does not have the power to hire, fire or discipline certain positions, including the police chief and fire chief. Police commissioners may be volunteers, but they are still officers of the county, she said. 

Council Member Gabe Johnson, who has pushed for an outright ban on the use of cameras and artificial intelligence in traffic enforcement, said because the commission is already doing an investigation, it didn’t make sense for the council to “double efforts.” But Johnson said on the council side, he’d be willing to look at changing laws or providing more funding for things such as improving MPD vetting processes.

“There are great officers that we have; they’re doing great work,” Johnson said. “It’s disappointing that the good work of the officers are getting outshined by these bad apples.”

Guy Rubenstein, an assistant professor of law at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law, said that public distrust of police tends to filter through the whole justice system all the way through the courts.

Rubenstein said one of the keys to success in rebuilding public trust in the wake of law enforcement crises is to create space for the community to speak out on what they want to see improve. That’s what the U.S. Department of Justice did with the city of Ferguson, Mo., after 2014 protests over the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. There, authorities turned community talks into an actionable plan.

“Whatever the police department chooses to do … make sure that they do so while respecting the community, while being transparent about the things they do, while making sure that they can be trusted again,” Rubenstein said.

“You take a crisis, and you create an opportunity out of it.”