Editorial: West Side safety should be priority

Oahu’s West Side has a crime problem, and that’s a problem that the City and County of Honolulu needs to face straight-on. It’s time that a shooting or aggravated assault in Makaha or Maili causes as much public consternation and official response as would a similar crime in Waikiki, where multiple actions to increase safety and address criminal behavior have been put into play.

What’s needed is a full-court press with public commitment to this beleaguered district, where high poverty rates, drug use and homelessness combine to incubate crime, yet the majority of residents, just as in other communities, are working people, family members and retirees who simply want to feel more safe in their own neighborhoods.

On Wednesday, a public meeting to address crime — particularly illegal game rooms and cockfighting — on Oahu’s West Side brought out members of that community who made emotional calls for help with gambling, gun violence and corruption.

The “Tough on Crime” community town hall was moderated by City Council member Andria Tupola, with Honolulu police Maj. Mike Lambert, a former narcotics vice detective who is now in charge of the vice division, and Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm.

“Tonight’s meeting is about public safety,” Tupola said. “What we’re concerned with is having more police presence to respond to these cases.”

To be sure, increased police presence is key to increased public safety. To that end, Tupola rightly has called repeatedly for full service at the Waianae Substation, which cost $16 million and was dedicated just over seven years ago. Seven years later, it sits practically empty, with only one staffer and little function, more of a teasing rebuke to Waianae’s hopes than a source of solutions.

District 8 police matters are largely conducted at the Kapolei District Station, but crime in and around Waianae has accounted for about one-third of incidents reported. Since at least 2011, there have been calls for establishment of a District 9, which could stretch from Nanakuli to Kaena.

Tupola introduced a Council resolution, adopted in March, that calls on HPD to add more officers and more beats in a new District 9, and to plan for a new Waianae Patrol District 9 by 2024. While staffing shortages are the root of HPD’s inability to make these changes, the resolution notes that HPD has returned unspent money to the city coffers and urges more dedication of resources to recruitment — and to the West Side. There is legitimate need here, and both the city and HPD should work together to make this happen with all possible speed.

As for the gambling problem, which has been tied to multiple shootings, including two shot dead in April during an altercation at a cockfight, the West Side has good reason to support HPD’s Lambert, who has proven ability to make inroads against gambling and drug operations. There’s also good reason to listen up when he says tips from residents in a community are often essential in enabling police takedowns of criminal activity. Until Waianae/West Side residents commit to a partnership with police, and vice versa, it will be difficult to make permanent inroads on the problems.

One crucial pathway to this is community policing — getting police officers out and interacting with those they serve to build trust. Activation of a police substation, an expansion of community policing to include frequent, wide-ranging “face time” presence by officers throughout the district, and encouragement of the residents themselves to stand up for their community via neighborhood watches could go far to dispel any impression that District 8 is not in the public eye — and to discourage criminal activity.