We’ll always have crime, but hopefully less of it

Police credit ongoing community and government kokua as key to the Aloha State’s record-low crime rate in 2016 — the lowest since statewide data collection started in the mid-1970s. The report’s rate of 3,206 offenses per 100,000 residents is a far cry from the late ’70s, when the record-high rate saw more than twice as many offenses.

Are we on a trajectory to a practically crime-free paradise? Probably not, if you fold in the National Crime Victimization Survey, which suggests about 50 percent of crimes go unreported. Those who might not call police include targets of abuse, victims in drug-related offenses or just about anyone who would rather not have the police involved in their affairs.

Governor, lieutenant governor races heat up

Everyone interested in Hawaii politics snapped to attention when U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa announced she wanted to make David Ige a one-term governor. But perhaps no one paid more attention than those eyeing the state’s No. 2 job, lieutenant governor: at the moment, that’s state Sens. Jill Tokuda, Will Espero and Josh Green, former House Speaker Joe Souki, and Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa.

Given the disappointing partnership of Ige and Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui, who’s leaving the job largely out of frustration with his boss, we hope Hawaii voters can make a more congenial match in 2018.