New Chinatown police enforcement plan yields arrests, connections and COVID vaccinations

The first five days of police patrolling Chinatown by foot yielded a mix of social service contacts, vaccinations, warnings and arrests — part of a strategy to reduce crime and connect people in need with health and shelter programs.

Between July 12-17, officers walking three patrol zones from River to Bishop streets and between North Beretania and North King streets made 356 contacts with individuals that resulted in 106 referrals for some kind of service, including COVID-19 testing and vaccination appointments.

Sixty people received their first vaccine dose after officers put them in contact with health care providers.

Ninety of those contacts wanted to learn more about the Homeless Outreach and Navigation for Unsheltered Persons (HONU) program, a mobile facility that can house up to 40 people at either Keehi Lagoon or Whitmore Village in Wahiawa for up to 90 days while they search for transitional or permanent housing.

Interim Honolulu Police Chief Rade K. Vanic briefed the Honolulu Police Commission Wednesday about the department’s Chinatown prevention task force and shared the statistics from its first five days on the detail.

Officers delivered 461 warnings for an array of offenses, including drinking in public, using private or public property as a toilet, and pedestrian, bicycle and traffic offenses, with 25 citations issued. Seven arrests were made, including four for outstanding warrants and two for drug crimes.

“The issues in Chinatown developed over decades and they weren’t expected to be solved in a week,” Mayor Rick Blangiardi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a statement.

“The Chinatown police enforcement plan, which began last week, will continue the rest of the year. The police work is difficult and I thank all the officers who have stepped up to protect the community from the unsafe and illegal activities. The City and HPD will continue the fight against crime and we will make the area safer for all.”

Blangiardi asked for the increased police presence in response to concerns about growing crime and the homeless encroaching on the neighborhood’s residential and business spaces. The plan is to eventually have six officers and one supervisor working four shifts covering the area 24 hours a day.

The program is being paid for with $2 million in authorized overtime, and officers may sign up for the shifts through the end of the year. Vanic pointed out that the patrols are in addition to bicycle details and community policing teams that work in the area and regularly interact with the public.

Eventually plainclothes officers will be worked into the Chinatown strategy to focus on outreach, Vanic said.

He told police commissioners the Chinatown Weed &Seed program yielded eight arrests for 14 alleged drug crimes, two arrests for criminal property damage and one arrest for littering.

Commissioner Richard Parry asked Vanic if officers work with social workers and homeless service providers.

“We want to make sure the enforcement portion and the contact and outreach portion work hand in hand together,” Vanic said in response to Parry’s question. “We’ve found in the past that is the most successful formula to fix the issues. We cannot completely focus on enforcement or completely focus on outreach because the two, when separated from each other, aren’t really as effective.”