Robbery, burglary
rates drop in
Honolulu

Efforts to apprehend
career burglars and purse snatchers
appear to be paying
off now

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

Robberies, purse snatchings and property crimes are dropping on Oahu, according to the latest crime statistics.

Greater public caution, community policing and multiagency law enforcement are causing the downward trend, police said.

Targeting career burglars and purse snatchers, in particular, appears to be paying off.

"A lot of them are repeat offenders. Once you get them off the street, you see the rates drop," said Lt. Mitchell Kiyuna of the Honolulu Police Department.

Robberies dropped 40 percent in April when compared with the same month a year ago, and burglaries decreased 25 percent, according to the Crime Index Offenses for Honolulu.

Honolulu currently ranks 10th among the nation's cities for thefts per 1,000 people, and 12th for burglaries, said Nathan Masuoka, in charge of HPD research and development.

"Community policing is acting as a deterrent," said Kiyuna, who works in burglary detail. "More enforcement is visible with neighborhood watches and citizen patrols."

Greater public caution also has helped.

"People aren't leaving things out of their houses as much, or in their cars," he said. "They're using more deadbolts and alarms."

One of the biggest factors in decreasing the robbery rate has been focusing on purse snatchers, said Lt. Cliff Takesono, who works in robbery detail.

Honolulu police and the FBI formed a task force in mid-1997 to stop a series of purse snatchings targeting Japanese female tourists, said U.S. Attorney Steve Alm.

A dozen or so men and women from the Waimanalo area were allegedly stealing cars, then driving alongside tourists and grabbing their purses, Alm said.

Tourists many times were dragged for several hundred yards alongside the car. One woman's legs were run over and numerous other victims were beaten, Alm said.

Sometimes these purse snatchers entered beach park restrooms and mugged women in stalls, Alm said.

Nine of the purse snatchers have been sentenced, and three have been convicted with pending sentences, Alm said.

"It had a big impact. This group had committed hundreds of purse snatchings, which were often very violent," Alm said.

A federal statute known as the Hobbs Act allowed the U.S. attorney's office to prosecute these crimes in federal court, which offers stiffer sentences without probation, he said.

State court judges, in comparison, could give probation to the guilty.

The Hobbs Act allows for federal prosecution of cases affecting a state's commerce.

Since the purse snatchings affected tourism, federal officials became involved.