HPD’s Loose Pursuit Policy Leads To Crashes In A Third Of Chases … Honolulu leaves it up to officers when to start a chase. That’s unusual, a Civil Beat review shows, and many HPD pursuits would not be allowed in other jurisdictions.
Moments before the twisting car crash that paralyzed Dayten Gouviea from the waist down, left Jonaven Perkins-Sinapati on life support, fractured the spines of both Trenstin Matua and Justus Sinapati Mason, and sent glass shards into Krypton Afakasi’s eyes, Honolulu police vehicles were caught on security video pursuing the Honda Civic with their lights off.
Sinapati Mason, 20, said that the police vehicle bumped them twice before they veered off the street, struck a concrete curb, collided with trees and continued over a concrete wall at the intersection of Orange Street and Farrington Highway.
The violent end to the police pursuit drew media attention and at least one lawsuit. But a Civil Beat investigation found that in one respect it was not unusual — nearly a third of police chases on Oahu involve crashes.
The Honolulu Police Department has not said why officers were pursuing the Honda that night. But the majority of police pursuits in Honolulu begin as either property crimes or traffic violations, according to an analysis of more than 140 HPD pursuit reports obtained by Civil Beat spanning between 2017 and 2019.
