Finding crime hot spots

Ten months' worth of Honolulu Police Department data and a sophisticated computer mapping program now allow residents in Honolulu to find the crime hot spots across the island.

The Star-Bulletin used the records of crimes reported in each of Honolulu's 120 police beats. The information shows the battlegrounds of crime.

The maps produced today and for the rest of this week will show where the most violent crimes happen, where the most burglaries have occurred and where the most suspected domestic abuse cases are reported.

The new program shows, for instance, that Manoa and Hawaii Kai have few reports of burglaries when compared with areas of Salt Lake and Waipahu.

The reports will also show what police are doing to combat crime by encouraging neighborhoods to reclaim their streets and parks, and what high-tech tools police need to monitor crimes more completely.

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Crime where you live

A Star-Bulletin special report

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

In Honolulu, the good news is that crime rates are generally going down.

The bad news is that your property is safer in 111 other major U.S. cities than in Hawaii.

But don't try to use statistics to temper the feelings of the public living in areas of Kalihi, Waipahu, Ewa Beach and Waianae. They have been hit hardest by both violent crimes and property crimes.

"Crime is No. 1 concern in Salt Lake," said Donna Mercado Kim, the councilwoman from the area.

A new computer study of 10 months of police data prepared by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin pinpoints the areas of high crime.

The details confirm what community leaders and law enforcement officials know. The pockets of high crime have everyone worried.

"Statistically, we are one of the safer states, but there is no getting around our completely unacceptable property-crime rates," says Peter Carlisle, Honolulu prosecutor.

To beef up prosecution, law officers can now lodge a felony charge against someone who breaks into a car.

"All felonies carry a more serious potential outcome," Carlisle said.

Police Chief Michael Nakamura wants to see the stakes raised for all property crimes. The real problem, he says, is "a lack of consequences" for crooks.

"We have to get a handle on providing consequences for crimes," he said. When people are sent to prison, the ones who committed property crimes are released first.

"If we don't create consequences for those people, then the citizens who are helping us will get just as fed up as the police."

Nakamura added that Honolulu's property-crime rate is high because the police department has a policy of reporting all thefts. Some jurisdictions don't record minor thefts.

"We report everything," he said.

Here are the statistics prepared by the FBI.

Honolulu in 1996 had 57,311 property crimes. Given our estimated population of 878,044, we have 6,527.1 property crimes per 100,000 residents.

Areas with a better property-crime rate include New York City, San Diego, Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and Houston.

If you look at trends across the last six years, the property-crime rate in Honolulu has jumped 12.3 percent.

Kim Garcia, a bicycle mechanic, learned of Honolulu's property-crime problem when she came out of the movies at Signature Theater in Pearl City.

Hers was one of six cars broken into while their owners were at the movies.

"I was the only one who filed a police report; everyone said they had it happen before," she said.

Whoever did it popped the lock, took her bags, a bike wheel, glasses and a camera.

"I was upset and I'm still upset. Everyone I look at, I think 'Did they do it?'" she said.

There is some encouragement in the latest calculations, which show that the Honolulu property crime rate decreased 10.6 percent from 1995 to 1996.

Nakamura points to the success of his community policing plans by noting that there has been a drop in the number of 911 calls in the last three years.

Honolulu's violent-crime rates, however, are a much more encouraging picture. The numbers show that this is a relatively safe place to live.

According to the FBI, only 10 areas have a lower violent-crime rate. In 1996 the violent-crime rate was 313 incidents per 100,000 residents.

To make the picture even better, our rate of violent crime dropped slightly more than 4 percent between 1995 and 1996.