The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney has declined to charge a Honolulu police corporal who was arrested in Kaneohe after a report of domestic violence.

Cpl. Roland Masao Kam, 49, was arrested April 17 on suspicion of misdemeanor abuse of a family or household member, second- degree unlawful imprisonment and interference with reporting an emergency or crime, according to the Honolulu Police Department.

Kam was the second HPD officer arrested for alleged domestic violence this month. Sterling E.K. Naki, 42, was arrested April 15 at a Makakilo residence for allegedly abusing a family or household member. Prosecutors declined to charge Naki and Kam with any crimes because “of insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to the prosecutor’s office.

Interim Police Chief Rade Vanic told the Honolulu Police Commission on Wednesday that although prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges against the officers, “both of the cases are still going through administratively and they are both still on restricted police authority.”

Kam, an 18-year HPD veteran, is assigned to District 4 covering Windward Oahu, and Naki, a 13-year veteran, is assigned to District 8 covering Kapolei.

Vanic told commissioners that since 2017, 20 police officers have been arrested in domestic violence cases, including three last year, two in 2020 and seven in 2019.

Commissioner Ann Botticelli asked Vanic about news reports that Naki was fired in connection with the 2015 cover-up of an accidental shooting in a bar, then reinstated through arbitration.

“I know it was a different charge, it wasn’t an abuse of a household member charge. How does this adjudication internally, how is that affected by a previous incident?” she asked. “Does he get to go through arbitration again if something happens?”

Vanic addressed the internal process for disciplining officers through administrative investigations conducted by HPD’s Professional Standards Office. He did not address the administrative allegations against Naki or Kam.

“Typically each case is looked at on the merits of its own … what happened,” Vanic said.

Any previous disciplinary action taken against an officer, including whether it was followed by a grievance process and the penalty was reduced or dismissed, would be considered while deciding what to do with the most recent offense.

“Yes, they do come into play but it also depends on the length of time (between alleged offenses) and the type of offense,” said Vanic.

Later in the meeting, Vanic was asked by commissioner Doug Chin about the violent crimes on Oahu this year.

“It sure seems like there’s been … more violent crimes that have occurred. More armed robberies … incidents that seem very serious,” said Chin. “The reason it’s captured a lot of our attention is that Honolulu is usually known as being relatively nonviolent compared to other jurisdictions.”

In response, Vanic said he would schedule a formal presentation of crime statistics for a future meeting. He then shared some anecdotal observations about violent crime in Honolulu over the past several years.

Crime is up in certain categories, including robberies, from 2020 and 2021, he told commissioners, but is more or less “on par” with levels of violent crime in 2018 and 2019, before pandemic restrictions went into effect.

“Now as people are starting to come out, they are out and around, especially in a place like this, there are a lot more opportunities for crimes of opportunity,” Vanic said.

Officers are using predictive modeling and crime-mapping technology to allocate manpower and crime- suppression techniques in areas of Oahu prone to violent crime. Vanic would not disclose during the public portion of the meeting the policing techniques meant to stop violent crime but told commissioners he would during the closed-door executive session.

A record 26,122 personal and private firearm permit applications were processed statewide in 2020, a 62.3% increase from the 16,098 applications processed in 2019, according to the Department of the Attorney General’s Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division. On Oahu, 16,259 gun permit applications were processed and 96% of them, or 15,694, were approved.

Police do not know if the increase in gun registrations and the increase in the use of firearms to commit crimes are connected but might examine the data, Vanic said.

“That would be something interesting to take a look at, to see if these firearms being used had been registered in the last few years,” he told commissioners.