Speakers present
crime solutions

Video surveillance and
civil restraining orders on prostitutes
are working elsewhere

By Rod Ohira

Star-Bulletin

Police Detective Edward Nishi has a mental snapshot of a visibly shaken Japanese visitor gripping the broken handle of her new handbag.

The woman was victimized twice in one day by purse-snatchers, Nishi said at yesterday's Visitor Crime Solutions Conference at the Outrigger Prince Kuhio Hotel.

"They're treating our tourists like walking (automated teller machines)," he said at the five-hour conference.

Statistics indicate that crime is down in Hawaii, but a single incident such as the one Nishi investigated affects the visitor industry more than numbers.

Most tourists react to a place not so much by the risk as by their perception of the risk, says Peter Tarlow, an authority on tourism and community empowerment.

"Ninety percent in school is a passing grade," Tarlow said in his keynote speech yesterday, "but 90 in tourism is a failure. You can't afford 90s.

"Nobody chooses to go where it's not safe," he added, citing New Orleans, Florida and Rio de Janeiro as examples of once-popular tourist destinations that are suffering due to crimes against visitors.

New York City, however, is safer today than Boise, Idaho, because the word there now is "you don't touch another person," Tarlow noted.

"But safety is just one component," he said.

"You've got to work on providing good service, attractions, good publicity every single day."

Outside speakers presented solutions that are working in their states.

Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Lalli of Las Vegas says video surveillance has been an effective prosecution tool.

"We only try 2 percent of the felony cases we file because they're forced to negotiate cases if we have video," Lalli said.

Lt. Greg Mullen noted that with video surveillance, Virginia Beach police can use two officers to cover an area that once needed 30 officers.

Steffeni Gray of the Association for Portland (Ore.) Progress says a partnership between businesses and the city has revitalized the 212-block area known as the "Downtown Clean and Safe District."

Uniformed guides and patrol officers provide street presence, while cleaning services remove graffiti and provide extra sidewalk cleaning. The city continues to provide basic services.

Prostitution, a major problem in Waikiki, has dropped in San Diego since police have been serving civil restraining orders on prostitutes, San Diego police officer David Headley said.

Individual prostitutes, identified by the community, are served with "harassment" restraining orders prohibiting them from being in a particular area. Eighty-eight of 116 prostitutes served with the court order last August are no longer in the area, Headley said.

Maricopa County, Ariz., Chief Deputy Sheriff Jadel Roe says innovative programs implemented by Sheriff Joe Arapaio are saving money and reducing crime.

The programs include separate tent camps for adult and juvenile offenders, "chain gang" work details and volunteer citizen patrols to deal with crime.

Public Safety Director Keith Kaneshiro and U.S. Attorney Steven Alm agree that Hawaii needs more prison space to deter crime.

"If we don't have prison space, there's no consequence," Kaneshiro said.

Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle wants tough crime laws that can be implemented without "alleged constitutional implications" to permit "walk and talk" and inventory searches.