Police in Hawaii accused of arresting sober drivers to meet DUI quota: ‘I was pretty scared, pretty terrified’
When Sarah Poppinga was pulled over for a broken tail light after a night out in Honolulu and offered a field sobriety test, she wasn’t worried – she hadn’t been drinking.
But police still arrested her, took her to the station and given a breathalyzer, which registered 0.00 for alcohol. She was released, but the ordeal was traumatizing, she said.
Now lawyers are claiming her case is part of a trend by police in Hawaii of making arrests on spurious grounds to fill a “quota.”
Some of dozens of people on the receiving end have described their treatment as “humiliating.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii filed a lawsuit last week alleging officers are arresting sober drivers in an overzealous focus on making drunk-driving arrests .
In recent years, Honolulu officers have arrested “scores” of drivers who show no outward signs of impairment, perform well on field sobriety tests and whose breath tests often show no alcohol, the lawsuit says.
“Each of our clients blew a 0.000. None of them were intoxicated. Yet they endured lasting damage to their records, their reputation, traumatic arrests, and unlawful detention,” said Jeremy O’Steen, an attorney with a firm that is working on the lawsuit with ACLU Hawaii.
“What we are demanding today is simple: Stop arresting innocent people. Stop manipulating the system.”
Sarah Poppinga is one of those people.
She was 26 years old when she was pulled over in June 2023 and can be heard on the cop’s body cam asking if the field sobriety test was optional. When the officer said that it was, she responded, “Oh, I’m going to pass.”
But seconds later, she was placed under arrest and taken to the police station where she took the breathalyzer and blew a 0.00, according to the report.
“I didn’t have any alcohol in my system, and I just felt, you know, it was unfair,” Poppinga told Hawaii News Now.
She said the arrest was traumatizing. “I was pretty scared. Pretty terrified.”
“There has to be other evidence that you don’t have the ability to drive safely on the road,” ACLU Hawaii legal director Wookie Kim said, pointing out that a tail light being off does not constitute probable cause. “This is a very concerning trend.”
From 2022 through 2024, Honolulu police arrested 127 people who had a blood-alcohol content level of 0.000 after a breath or blood test for driving under the influence, according to the lawsuit. Only 15 people were given a traffic ticket, and only three people were charged with driving under the influence of drugs, the lawsuit said.
The “pattern” of Honolulu police has been to stop drivers either without any problematic driving at a sobriety checkpoint or for minor traffic infractions, the lawsuit said.
ACLU Hawaii is concerned there are quotas that officers are trying to meet. In looking at arrest statistics, the organization found a cluster of arrests at the end of the month.
On August 31, 2024, there were three arrests in which a breath test showed 0.000 at the same location about 20 minutes from each other, the ACLU said.
Ammon Fepuleai, who was pulled over in November 2023, called his arrest “humiliating.”
During the stop, an officer is heard on body cam saying that he smelled alcohol, according to the lawsuit.
Fepuleai agreed to a breathalyzer test and blew a 0.00, but he was arrested anyway. No charges were filed.
The ACLU said it became aware of the issue thanks to an investigation by Hawaii News Now reporter Lynn Kawano.
The class-action lawsuit is on behalf of three plaintiffs who were arrested and represents hundreds of other drivers. All three were included in the HNN series.
All three drivers had breath test results of 0.00 either before or after they were taken to the police station, HNN says.
Supervisors give officers incentives, including telling night enforcement officers they can go home and still get paid for an entire shift if they make a DUI arrest, which results in officers taking investigative shortcuts or making arrests without probable cause, the ACLU claims.
Police are attempting to show that officers are protecting the public, using arrest numbers to secure federal funding and to meet quotas, the organization said.
On Thursday, ACLU Hawaii legal director Wookie Kim said the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit “represent a class of hundreds of drivers who have been arrested by HPD in recent years without due process or without probable cause.”
Kim said they also represent future drivers.
In response to the lawsuit, the Honolulu Police Department said that it “takes these allegations very seriously” and officials have “initiated a comprehensive review of all impaired driving arrests dating back to 2021.”
In addition to the ongoing review, the cases of the three plaintiffs will be internally investigated, with police saying, “We are dedicated to upholding public trust and will take appropriate action should any misconduct be found.”
