[ OUR OPINION ]

---

Crime rate worsens,
but it’s not that bad

THE ISSUE The FBI's annual crime report shows Hawaii among the worst states in the number of crimes per capita.

HAWAII'S high crime rate compared to other states can be attributed partly to the method used by the FBI in tabulating crime. That does not explain why the crime rate in Hawaii has been increasing faster than in other states, according to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report. Adding to the confusion are more recent figures showing that Oahu's crime rate decreased during the first eight months of this year.

While the rate of serious crime in the nation showed little change in 2002 over previous years, actually decreasing by 1.1 percent from the previous year, Hawaii's crime rate rose considerably, from 65,947 offenses in 2001 to 75,238 last year, an increase of more than 14 percent. Violent crimes rose by 3 percent in Hawaii, compared to a decrease of nearly 1 percent nationwide, but the islands remained low in violent crimes per capita.

Hawaii is at its worst in the category of property crimes, those most often connected with drugs. The state is third worst -- behind the District of Columbia and Arizona -- in the categories of overall crime, property crime and auto theft, and for the third straight year is No. 1 in larceny-thefts per 100,000 residents, followed by D.C. and Arizona.

The FBI figures are skewed in one significant respect, making the the crime scene look especially bad for Hawaii and, to a lesser extent, its two companion bad-boy jurisdictions. By comparing the number of crimes to the resident population, the method fails to account for how many people actually are in the state -- susceptible to crime or motivated to commit criminal acts -- during a given period.

Hawaii's overall rate of 6,043.7 crimes per 100,000 people is based on the number of crimes occurring last year in a state with a population of 1,244,898. Not mentioned is the fact that the number of tourists visiting Hawaii on a given day ranges from 130,000 to 200,000, and averages more than 160,000.

With tourists factored in, the state's crime rate in 2002 falls to about 4,200 crimes per 100,000 people in the state, very near the national average of 4,162.6 crimes per capita. That is enough to provide solace, along with figures released by Honolulu police Chief Lee Donohue that overall crime on Oahu decreased by 8 percent during this year's first eight months from the same period last year.

---

BACK TO TOP
|

Compromise will help
prevent forest fires

THE ISSUE Congress has agreed to legislation aimed at preventing fires by expanding forest-thinning projects and limiting anti-logging injunctions.

IGNITED by the wildfires devastating Southern California, Congress is refining a bill that would accelerate tree-thinning projects aimed at making U.S. forests less vulnerable to fire and protecting adjacent communities. A flawed version that was little more than a bonanza to the timber industry passed the House in May, but changes in the Senate would make it an acceptable program to protect homes near national forests.

For decades, the government would suppress forest fires as soon as it could, not realizing that some small fires actually help the forests' ecosystem. As a result, many forests are deep in deadwood, shrubs and treelets that are kindling for major destruction. The greatest danger is in areas where subdivisions abut or extend into these forest areas.

President Bush proposed his "Healthy Forest Initiative" in the summer of 2002, when fires raged throughout the West. It would have allowed commercial logging in remote areas to achieve the desired thinning but not require it in forest areas near homes. It also would weaken environmental protections by combatting what U.S. Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth calls "analysis paralysis," although a study has shown that 95 percent of timber projects proceed within the standard 90-day review process.

The House bill, which conformed with the Bush initiative, brought protests from Western governors and resulted in a Senate compromise carved by Democrats Dianne Feinstein of California and Ron Wyden of Oregon. Among other things, it would require that at least half the money be spent on thinning, prescribed burns and other techniques in overgrown forests next to communities. The remainder would be spent on watersheds, endangered-species habitats or areas that have suffered wind damage or insect infestations.

Sens. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Barbara Boxer of California proposed even greater protection of old-growth trees and devoting at least 70 percent of the money to protecting communities. However, the compromise had been agreed to by a bipartisan group of mostly Western senators, including not only Feinstein and Wyden but Republicans Larry E. Craig of Idaho and Jon Kyl of Arizona. Bush has agreed to the Senate provision, which leaves little choice to the House but to accept the Senate changes.