Knowing your neighbors

LIHU‘E — Get to know your neighbors.

Not only because it develops a sense of community, but because it helps prevent crime, panelists said Friday morning at the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce’s Crime Prevention Seminar.

“The most important thing is communicating with your neighbors,” said David Hamman, owner of  Integrity Alarm Surveillance and Access. “People don’t always know their neighbors … Get to know one another.”

When neighbors know each other they can watch out for suspicious behavior. The problem is people hardly converse, especially in more isolated communities, and it’s hard to tell whether activity is peculiar if you’ve never even met, he said.

The seminar, held at Kaua‘i Marriott Resort and Beach Club, was not about frightening people or discouraging visitors from coming to Hawai‘i, it was more along the lines of addressing the island’s rising crime rate and helping people become more aware of their surroundings.

“Believe it or not, it’s common sense,” said Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau. “People have $1,000 and go to the beach and leave it in their purse and go swimming … would you have done that in L.A. or Miami? It’s a good thing people think we’re perfect, but it’s not true.”

It’s not only visitors making mistakes, she added, it’s residents too.

“Everybody thinks this doesn’t apply to them,” she said.

Kaua‘i Assistant Chief Roy Asher agreed.

“The crime numbers are high for both visitors and residents, unfortunately,” he said.

The climbing trend of burglaries sweeping the island has not revealed much partiality to any particular neighborhood, according to Marisa Valenciano and Stephanie Kawamura, summer interns at the Kaua‘i Police Department, but visitor areas have a tendency to attract more thieves.

“Where there are a lot of tourists, there are more break-ins,” Kawamura said, adding that it the coming and going of the island’s guests makes vacation rentals and timeshares more desirable places to break in because they are typically gone throughout the day.

Po‘ipu was the “newest hot spot” because of the growing population, she said.

Hamman agreed that Po‘ipu and the North Shore were “easy targets” because of the vacation rentals.

The least number of burglaries occurred in Waimea in 2008, according to statistics. The highest number of residential thefts occurred in Hanalei and the greatest amount of commercial break-ins happened in Lihu‘e.

“Hot spots” in 2008 for unauthorized entry into motor vehicles were Kipu Falls, Polihale, Po‘ipu and Ke‘e, either because of their isolated locations or the attraction of visitors to the areas, Valenciano and Kawamura said.

While Asher said crime was “slightly” increasing this year, exact statistics could not be obtained from county officials by press time.

“Kaua‘i is changing,” Hamman said. “It’s not like the good ole days.”

Linda Ruby of the Grand Hyatt Resort and Spa said the new trends have been linked to the economy and “family structures breaking down.

“Therefore, we’re going to see a lot more crime,” she said.

Hamman agreed that the state of the economy, the increase in population and escalation of drug use has caused crime to reach new levels on an island where people used to be able to leave their house and car doors unlocked.

The crimes don’t have a specific gender, race or age; it’s everyone, Ruby added.

“They’re watching us whether we know it or not,” Hamman said, adding that criminals have “inside information” 99.9 percent of the time.

The number one key to prevention was reiterated time and again on Friday, and as Adam Orens of A&B Audio Video said, neighbors are the best way to “stop burglars from getting in.”

Alarms are also beneficial with warning stickers, he said. But for those who can’t afford high-tech equipment, he said videos are the last thing he recommends anyway.

“You can have video, but it doesn’t mean much if they’ve already done $10,000 in damage,” he said.

Even though Asher admits the Kaua‘i Police Department is short-handed, Randy Francisco, president of the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce, said “the good news is there’s a new class graduating tonight.”

But because of KPD’s current limitations, Ruby said, “it’s going to take the whole community to think like professionals.”

For more information on how to start a Neighborhood Watch Group, contact Contrades (Kapa‘a to Ha‘ena) at 241-1635, Lt. Sherwin Perez (Kapa‘a to Puhi) at 241-1711 or  Lt. Danilo Abadilla (Koloa to Kekaha) at 338-1831.

• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com