Residents lament When a woman was found strangled Feb. 28 in front of the Ross Store on Fort Street Mall, Downtown Neighborhood Board members wondered if police might have caught the suspect sooner had the city's surveillance cameras been working.
poor state of police
cameras in wake
of strangling
Most of the cameras
By Leila Fujimori
were never hooked up
Star-BulletinOnly two of Chinatown's 26 crime prevention cameras are up and running. The small video monitoring room in the Chinatown police substation on North Hotel Street is a jumble of cables.
And that has the Downtown Neighborhood Board angry, businesses alarmed and police frustrated.
Police Sgt. Lester Hite said when the cameras were working, they made an impact on street narcotics sales and prostitution. But now police only have two working cameras and are unable to reassure community members. "The whole basis (of the cameras) was to address the fear of crime," Hite said.
Board Chairwoman Lynn Matusow opposes the installation of any more $3,000 surveillance cameras until the city can prove the existing ones will work. "They're throwing money out," she said.
Burton White, who had lobbied for the cameras as then-chairman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said that when the cameras worked, they cut crime from the day the first arrest was made, the very day the mayor announced the cameras.
But things began to change.
"I questioned why there was a proliferation of drug trafficking. What had changed?" asked White, general manager of the Hawaii Theatre Center.
"We're having drug dealing in Chinatown Gateway Park, 50 yards away, while I'm shuttling 3,000 kids a day during student matinees," White said.
Rae Loui, the city's director of the Department of Design and Construction, said all of the 14 original cameras were operating before the police substation relocated last May.
The station moved to the corner of North Hotel and Maunakea streets, two blocks Ewa of the old location at the corner of South Hotel Street and Nuuanu Avenue.
Loui said that wiring problems arose with most of the original 14 cameras after the move. City spokeswoman Carol Costa said vandalism caused another camera to go down, leaving two cameras operational -- both on River Street, one at the Hotel Street intersection and the other at the Pauahi Street intersection.
Hite said several cameras were not working before the move, and, after the move, most were gradually lost.
Loui said the fiber-optic cables running from the cameras to hub sites have not yet been rerouted to the new substation.
Another 12 cameras were added when decorative light fixtures were installed in conjunction with a renovation project. The city opted to have the cameras mounted at that time, though they, too, have not been connected to the system. The new cameras are located along King Street between River and Bethel streets.
The city has been working to remedy the problem. Loui said the city had inadequate funds to complete the project.
But just last Wednesday, the city awarded a $254,000 maintenance contract to Siu's Electric Corp. to upgrade the equipment to handle all 26 cameras, said Loui. "Although it's taken longer, we're ending up with a better system," Loui said.
The city also has $50,000 set aside to maintain the system once it is up and running.
Hite said when the cameras were working, police made several arrests using the 26-hour videotapes, which are stored for 30 days.
He said people would often run into the substation off the street and report drug sales. But police would be unable to search suspects. The cameras allowed police to pan and zoom in on the activity and catch criminals in the act.
"It was never the intent of the camera system to arrest people," Hite said. But it has served as a deterrent.
As for the stabbing case on Fort Street Mall, Hite said no camera is located at the site, but there is one nearby on Hotel and Fort streets. Hite said if the cameras had been working, they may have caught the suspect in the area.
Shop owners told the Star-Bulletin they believed the cameras were working. But people like Matusow say, "I wonder why it took so long to do this."