Community joins police to reduce Waikiki crime

On almost any day or night in Waikiki, it’s possible to see violent crime, street fights, drug deals, prostitutes, theft, graffiti, litter, runaway kids, loud drunks, or people using the streets as their personal toilet, says resident John Dew.

"We’re fed up with it," said Dew, a Waikiki Neighborhood Board member who recently joined a Honolulu Police Department security watch to help protect the district where he has lived for decades. "In the 1960s and 1970s, Waikiki was warm and fuzzy. Realistically, now I’d say that there are areas that are very dangerous. The crime is the worst that it’s been … violent, too."

Waikiki police say they don’t think crime in their district has grown; however, they acknowledge it’s important to respond promptly and focus on deterrence. They’ve stepped up efforts to recruit more residents and businesses to join security watches and patrols to make their neighborhoods safer.

Waikiki now has five neighborhood security watches and one neighborhood patrol, and the district soon will add a business security watch, said HPD Officer John DeMello, who met with Dew and other Waikiki residents recently to promote community involvement in policing.

"We’ve got about 100 residents who are willing to serve as eyes and ears and sometimes the nose for the police," he said.

Thomas Foti, general manager of Hilton Waikiki Beach, pledged his staff of roughly 300 employees to join a newly organized business security watch.

"I saw what the police did when they partnered with residents and businesses to improve the Kuhio Mini Park, which is near our property," Foti said. "We used to get complaints about the park from guests and from our associates. Now, it’s much more pleasant to look at and the number of incidents has flattened out." 

Foti, who stops by the park a few times a week to pick up trash and sends other hotel workers to trim trees and fix sprinklers when needed, said he’s glad to be a part of Waikiki police efforts to reduce crime and increase the level of hospitality in the tourist mecca.

Waikiki resident Melody Young worked with DeMello to organize residents to take back their small neighborhood park.

"I complained for about two years about the goings-on in the park, from fights to drug deals to people fencing stolen items to homeless dancing naked in front of small children to chronic drinkers and noise makers," said Young, who moved to Waikiki in 2004. "At one time, we had 10 people sleeping on mattresses in the park and a large population of homeless people and bus riders were urinating and defecating there."

The once-derelict park got a face-lift in September thanks to the support of HPD’s community policing team in Waikiki, residents and nearby businesses. The group pooled resources to landscape the park and top its walls and bus stop with freshly painted murals from volunteers at 808 Urban. Young, who lives in a condominium overlooking the park, quickly worked with DeMello to organize a security watch to protect the park improvements.

HPD Maj. Cary Okimoto said Waikiki community policing has evolved from talking with shop owners and residents to working with the community to get results.

"If an area is run down, it breeds crime," Okimoto said. "By beautifying an area, we instill pride and that causes the citizens to make more frequent calls and do their own nonconfrontational patrolling. Eventually, criminals will find another place to go."

Young said it’s important that people understand community involvement works.

"It’s not realistic to think that the police can be everywhere at once," she said. "We need to let them know what’s going on in our neighborhood and we need to be willing to testify about it in court." 

She’s calling for more community support to fight prostitution and other crimes, many of which are related.

"Several residents brought up prostitution at our last neighborhood security watch meeting. Six or seven years ago, it didn’t seem to infiltrate the community to the extent that it does now," Young said. "Now, the pimps and prostitutes live here. They shop in our stores and have fights in our streets."

Dave Moskowitz, who has been a Waikiki resident for the past 14 years, said he lives near the condominium where a Japanese man was stabbed, allegedly by a prostitute, in November.

"There was a trail of blood all the way down the sidewalk," he said. "I think there are far more crimes here than get reported. I don’t go out after 11 p.m. unless I get in a cab. I don’t feel safe going down the middle of Waikiki at night. A lot of people feel that way."

But a growing pool of Waikiki residents, like Ellen Trahan, are determined to work with police to improve their neighborhood. Trahan, a resident since 1984, signed up for a new neighborhood security watch last week.

"I figure the more people we have watching, the less bad things will happen," Trahan said. "I have a teenage granddaughter and I want her to be safe walking at night."