Issue
For many years
West Hawaii law enforcement has been underfunded, undermanned, and criminal activity has continued unabated. This has resulted in the loss of many experienced senior officers, longer response times, and high numbers of repeat offenders. ● Even though the population has grown by more than 25%, the same number of beats and beat officers exists as in 1991. [1] Positions continue to remain vacant on the County force. ● Too many convicted felons are on the streets today, some of whom have committed dozens of crimes and continue to do so. ● News articles and letters to the Editor of WHT have communicated regularly about crime and this reflects negatively upon our business climate, especially impacting tourists. Position ● “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I.e., there must be a concerted emphasis on pro-active policing as evidenced by the success story of
New York city. ● County administration needs to increase each watch by five officers and create two additional beats.● County administration needs to fund the creation of two 3 man teams for a crime reduction unit in Kona that can work at selected hours, target repeat offenders, and provide selective enforcement in uniform and plain clothes. ● County administration needs to create 6 new Cushman positions for
Kailua’s merchant areas, and a detective and five additional patrol positions for
South Kohala. ● County administration needs to contract/hire retired officers with a special duty rate for 90 day periods until new ranks are filled, thus saving money on benefits and retaining experience for new officer training. ● County administration needs to increase the number of marked cars by 10 for
West Hawaii and equip each with a video camera.● State legislators need to create a “3 Strikes Law” that will deal with repeat offenders and provide realistic bail schedules that will be incremental in regards to the amount of arrests and/or convictions that a person has had. ● The State should hire more probation and parole officers that will bring physical checks to serious felons, thus decreasing recidivism.● Now that approval has been granted for a Hale Halewai substation with an assigned beat officer, we advocate the manning of this substation on a 24/7 basis as much as possible.
[1] Prorated based upon US Census data for Hawaii County and doesn't take into account the disproportionate increases in West Hawaii and Puna areas.
