To capture evidence of possible crimes, the Honolulu Police Department might use community volunteers to monitor its overt public surveillance camera system in Waikiki.

In an annual memorandum required under city law and transmitted earlier this month to the Honolulu City Council, HPD Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan noted that the police currently have 119 surveillance cameras installed within Waikiki.

But operating those surveillance cameras means that ongoing issues, both technical and human, do arise.

“The cameras require continuous servicing and are scheduled to be serviced annually,” Logan’s Jan. 10 memo states. “The cameras were monitored by a Waikiki Business Improvement District Association’s Aloha Ambassador, but the position has been removed due to the reallocation of positions.”

“The HPD is currently looking for additional volunteers to monitor the cameras system,” the memo states.

And Logan noted “the camera footage is accessible to officers and is retained as evidence if needed.”

Although the memo states the need for volunteers, HPD Maj. James Slayter told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser that finding the people needed to monitor surveillance footage is still under consideration.

“The position is currently open, and we are looking at different options for monitoring the cameras,” he said via email.

Slayter, the department’s District 6 Waikiki commander, noted that there is no “deadline” to fill the positions at this time.

Meantime, he pointed to a city law — Ordinance 2-32.3 — which specifically grants authorization for certain overt monitoring of public activity from fixed locations, by members of the public.

“To the extent practicable, the overt video monitoring of public activity in these areas shall be conducted by community volunteers,” the city law states.

According to Slayter, the obtained footage “is from cameras located in public areas in and around the Waikiki Peninsula.”

“The cameras are for the general prevention and deterrence of criminal activity and to capture evidence of possible crimes that occur,” he said. “This includes both violent and property crimes.”

And work to maintain HPD’s surveillance camera system — and its additional cameras — is underway in Waikiki and elsewhere, according to Logan.

“The HPD is currently upgrading its hardware system in the Waikiki Police Substation to increase its work capacity to accommodate the additional cameras and technology, which should be completed in early 2024,” his memo states.

HPD is “also working with the Department of Information Technology to upgrade the 26 analog cameras in Chinatown, which have been partially inoperable and awaiting servicing since 2019,” the memo states.

“The former analog cameras are being replaced with a state-of-the-art digital camera system as part of an ongoing initiative to revitalize the area and reduce crime within Chinatown,” the memo states.

The all-new digital system, provided by Genetec Inc., will consist of 52 digital cameras. The upgrades to support the new technology is being completed in three phases, Logan’s memo states.

Phase one of that installation — which included a 10-gigabit wireless backhaul, seven fixed camera locations and the installation of a camera workstation and video monitoring wall within the Chinatown Substation — has been completed, the memo states.

According to Logan, project phases two and three are scheduled for completion by the end of 2024.

“Historically, the cameras have been monitored by community volunteers,” the police chief stated. “However, due to ongoing training limitations, officers assigned to the Chinatown area periodically check the cameras.”

In Chinatown, HPD’s seven cameras are located at the following intersections:

>> Hotel and Maunakea streets, near HPD’s Chinatown substation

>> Hotel and Kekaulike streets

>> Hotel and River streets

>> River and Pauahi streets

>> Pauahi Street, near the public restroom

>> Pauahi and Maunakea streets

>> Pauahi and Smith streets

According to the city, the Chinatown cameras and new network infrastructure are an upgrade over the city’s prior analog surveillance camera system — technology installed over 20 years ago and, in many instances, no longer working.

Ian Scheuring, the mayor’s deputy communications director, previously told the Star-Advertiser the old system was so outdated it required surveillance video to be recorded onto VHS tapes.

With the latest upgrades, though, the city says each new camera records 360-­degree footage and comes with pan-tilt-zoom functionality, allowing anyone monitoring the cameras to closely examine points or persons of interest.

In addition to high-­resolution quality and 360-degree view planes, the cameras are capable of tracking motion and movement and are equipped with flashing lights and sirens, the city says.

“Each camera comes with a flashing light, which will flash blue during the nighttime hours to indicate that police officers are monitoring the cameras,” Scheuring said previously, noting that surveillance information is collected and stored for future criminal prosecutions. “The footage from each camera is stored for a minimum of 30 days.”

The estimated cost of the Chinatown security camera system upgrade is $980,000, with about $450,000 coming from federal Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, the city says.

But despite the city’s need to quell crime in Chinatown and Waikiki, others have concerns over added powers of high-tech police surveillance versus the public’s right to privacy.

“I think what sets this apart from a lot of other technologies is that it is really, really high-tech and state of the art. … This level of analytics when it comes to surveillance is extremely alarming,” Jongwook “Wookie” Kim, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii’s legal director, told the Star-Advertiser previously. “To be clear, it invades the privacy of not just people who are doing things that might be illegal; it impacts every single person.”

He added that such technology — with the ability to powerfully zoom in on people to photograph and record them — could have a chilling effect over the general public.

“Just knowing that the government and, specifically, the police department is watching over your every move when you are in an area, it’s going to chill you and prevent you from doing things you might otherwise do,” he said. “And that’s not the type of society society that we want, and it’s not the type of society our constitutions permit.”

ACLU Hawaii — which had no plans for legal action in this matter — intends to pay close attention to this police surveillance and privacy rights issue, Kim said.