Kaua‘i Police Chief Darryl Perry, after being first suspended for “insubordination” on Feb. 1 and later placed on paid leave by the mayor, will be back at work today after a unanimous vote by the Kaua‘i County Police Commission to return him to his job, Perry said Tuesday.
“One of the main reasons I took this job is to get the department on track again and to create trust in the community for the Kaua‘i Police Department,” Perry said by telephone.
“In my opinion, we’ve done a great job, and this whole situation has set us back. We’ll be working on correcting the damage that was done,” he said.
The office of Kaua‘i County Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. on Feb. 1 announced that Perry had been placed on leave, one day after the county announced that two assistant police chiefs had been placed on leave.
“I was suspended for seven days first, for insubordination and dereliction of duty,” the police chief said.
Perry said he was suspended from Feb. 1 until Feb. 7, and then placed on paid leave beginning Feb. 8.
“I can’t go into details as to why that occurred,” Perry said about the decisions to place him on suspension and then on leave.
“What I can say is, based on the county charter, I believe the mayor and the managing director exceeded their authority in placing me on suspension. That power lies with the police commission,” Perry said.
Carvalho said at a news conference Feb. 2 — at which he read a statement but answered no questions — the the county “will not reveal any information about the content” of what was only described as an employee complaint.
The mayor did read from the statement that the reported decisions to place the county’s top police officers on leave “should not be construed to be disciplinary in nature.”
Perry said Assistant Chiefs Roy Asher and Assistant Chief Ale Quibilan remain on leave.
Perry said he testified before the police commission at a special meeting on Friday, asking members to “resolve this issue between the powers of the police commission and the mayor’s office.”
The police chief said the commissioners voted unanimously to return him to duty and, with their vote, showed “that they support me and they support the community and the police department.
“During that meeting Friday, I offered testimony thanking the police commissioners for their support and asking them to resolve this issue between the powers of the police commission and the mayor’s office as written in the charter. There has to be clarity on this. The police department is caught in the middle,” he said.
Perry said it felt “good” to be allowed to return to his job. “I’ve been wanting to go back to work for a while now,” he said.
Perry, a former Honolulu police officer who attained the rank of major in the criminal investigation division, has been Kaua‘i’s police chief since August 2007.
