Serious crime down on Kaua’i in 2001

Crime is down on Kaua’i.

The final numbers are in for 2001 and they paint a pretty good crime picture for Kaua’i, especially when compared to the other islands.

Overall, according to Kaua’i Police Chief George Freitas, crime is down 9.0 percent from 2000.

There were two homicides on Kaua’i in 2001, down four from six the year before.

There were 15 forcible rapes in 2001, down eight from 2000’s 23.

There were 67 assaults in 2001, down 34 from 101 assaults in 2000.

There were 12 robberies on Kaua’i in 2001, down two from 14 the previous year.

Burglaries, on the rise again in January and February of this year dropped from 591 to 506 in 2001.

Motor vehicle theft was the only serious crime to rise last year, going from 79 in 2000 to 96 in 2001.

Freitas credited the community at large for the crime-rate drop.

“It’s community tolerance. This community doesn’t tolerate a lot of crime. It’s the community’s expectation of crime that influences the crime rate. When the community demands a crime-free environment that helps us,” Freitas said.

“The crime trends go up and down. I think the biggest difference since we came in is that the police department is not releasing those arrested pending investigation…You’ve got a handful of people who do most of the crime. If they are arrested and then released pending investigation, they will continue to commit crime,” Kaua’i County Prosecutor Mike Soong said.

“The credit goes to the police department. Once they hold them they have to get a report in within 48 hours. Some of the officers are working around the clock and on weekends. We’re calling judges at home. Once they (those arrested) are off the street and in the system we have put an end to that lineage of crime,” Soong added.

While Kaua’i’s overall violent crime rate was going down, other islands weren’t so lucky.

In the state’s semi-annual crime summary, released in late January, the City and County of Honolulu, Hawai’i County and Maui County also posted increases in total crimes, violent crimes and property crimes.

State officials also noted that the value of property stolen in Hawai’i from January 1, 2001 to June 30, 2001 totaled $30.2 million, up 11.7 percent from the same period in 2000.