HONOLULU (KHON2) — Honolulu police are getting ready to pull its extra manpower from the Leeward coast after they had been there to bring back a sense of safety and security to the community.
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The move is getting mixed reactions from area lawmakers.
After a string of violent crimes on the Waianae coast, Honolulu Police dedicated more resources to the area but that’s coming to an end at the end of the year.
“And we’re looking at not reducing resources, necessarily speaking, but handing over the activities to the district completely,” said Chief Joe Logan, Honolulu Police Department.
HPD Chief Logan mentioned the change during the recent police commission meeting.
“I think this just goes to show that extra enforcement is needed on the Waianae coast, so if it’s working, why would we retreat?” said Sen. Samantha Decorte, (R) Ko Olina-Makua.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources has been staffing the Waianae Boat Harbor 24-7 since August. At this time, that will continue.
State Department of Law Enforcement said it will continue to support HPD and other law enforcement agencies in promoting safety on the Leeward Coast but newly elected Waianae Senator Samantha Decorte said there’s still a big missing piece.
“I have been a strong advocate for many years on completing the Waianae police station,” said Decorte. “It still continues to sit unfinished and uncompleted.”
“Do we need like a whole bunch of people just out there around? I’m sure to some degree that helps, but really the plan with crime is not to just have kinda a scarecrow method of trying to scare people off but to have a long-term method,” said Honolulu Councilmember Andria Tupola.
Honolulu Council member Andria Tupola is looking for long-term fixes.
“It’s kinda like the broken glass theory,” said Tupola. “You have broken glass and things everywhere, it looks like you should do crime there. We need to deter people from crime in areas like that and the only way you do it is to beautify, make it look like ‘hey this is not a place to do this.'”
Tupola said she wants to attack crime in three areas – at parks by creating a “parks detail” for patrol, in schools with resource officers and cleaning up the corridor from the bridge to the high school.
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“I want them to feel like they can tell me the things that maybe a small difference will have a huge impact,” said Tupola.
“We want to be able to go to the grocery store, walk to our cars, and not have to look over our shoulders,” said Decorte. “I mean, this is just not a healthy way for any community to live. Public safety should be number one in every community.”
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