Collision involving Maui police chief looked into by Honolulu investigator

A Honolulu Police Commission investigator is doing an investigation for the Maui Police Commission into a minor motor vehicle collision last year involving Maui County Police Chief Tivoli Faaumu.

“The Maui Police Commission has secured an investigator from the Honolulu Police Commission to conduct an independent investigation into a Nov. 7, 2020, incident involving Maui Police Chief Tivoli Faaumu at the Queen Ka’ahumanu Center,” the commission said in a statement released Thursday.

“The commission is awaiting the outcome of the independent investigation.”

Faaumu was reversing out of a parking stall at the mall when he backed his pickup truck into a parked motorcycle. He said he didn’t know he had hit the motorcycle when he drove away.

Surveillance video of the truck hitting the motorcycle was posted on YouTube about a week and a half later, after Faaumu said he received an anonymous letter saying a copy of the video would be sent to the media and giving him a deadline to retire by the end of last year.

Police classified what happened as a minor motor vehicle collision.

Faaumu told The Maui News last week that he planned to retire May 1, a decision he’d been weighing prior to the pandemic. He said his retirement “did not have anything to do with” the collision at the mall.

Deputy Police Chief Dean Rickard will serve as acting police chief while the commission searches for a replacement; Rickard is also looking to retire at the end of the year.