[ OUR OPINION ]
Don’t let budget problems
result in crime increaseMOST crimes declined during the past year across the country, reaching their lowest levels on record, while Honolulu's crime rate has been on the rise. The crime rate usually reflects the health of the economy, so the national decline in crime last year from 2001 comes as a surprise. By the same token, Honolulu's somewhat surprising crime increase came amid reports of Hawaii's recovering economy.
THE ISSUE
The number of major crimes declined nationally from 2001 to 2002 while Honolulu experienced a significant increase in crime.Honolulu's rise in violent crime was slight. However, an enormous increase in thefts and burglaries followed a decision to cut back on prosecution of property crime because of a shortage of prosecutors. Many property crimes are believed to pay for drug problems, particularly crystal methamphetamine. The city should make sure it has enough prosecutors to handle a full caseload.
National figures released by the Justice Department this week showed that the number of major crimes decreased slightly in 2002 from the previous year in every category except murder, which increased slightly. In Honolulu, it was just the opposite, according to a June report by the Honolulu Police Department: The number of major crimes increased in every category except murder, which fell to 18 from 20.
Experts attribute the national trend to a less violent drug trade, lower gang membership and improved home security systems to deter burglars. The argument that tougher prison sentences and more prisons lead to reduced crime is questionable. The Justice Policy Institute, a research organization that favors alternatives to prison, points out that New York's prison population declined from 2000 to 2001 while serious crime also dropped by 5.6 percent.
The Honolulu crime statistics seem at first glance to have been fairly stable during the past decade. While the island's population grew by nearly 5 percent in the 1990s, criminal acts rose by less than 1 percent from 1993 to 2002. However, the annual figures show the city to have been on a roller coaster during those years, with crimes reaching a nadir in 1999. Crimes in Honolulu rose by 34 percent from 1999 to last year, even though murders declined by more than half from the record 37.
Budget problems in the city prosecutor's office may have played more of a role in Honolulu's increased crime rate last year. City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle advised Police Chief Lee Donohue in January 2002 that his office could not handle the high volume of cases referred by the police, asking Donohue to cut back on the number of referrals for prosecution of nonviolent crimes.
Donohue says he complied. Through that year, property crimes rose to 57,271 -- a whopping 18 percent more than the 48,422 thefts and burglaries committed in 2001. Meanwhile, violent crimes, which Donohue continued to refer to the prosecutor at the same pace as before, rose by less than 1 percent.
