Federal anti-crime program right for Kaua’i?

KAPA’A — A federally funded program has dramatically cut into the number of

murder, rape, burglary and drug cases in the Kalihi-Palama and Chinatown

districts on O’ahu, one of the highest crime areas in Hawai’i, a top federal

law enforcement official told KAPA’A business leaders yesterday.

But Steven

S. Alm, U.S. attorney for Hawai’i, said it is up in the air as to whether the

Department of Justice’s “Weed and Seed” program should be adapted to fit on

Kaua’i.

“I don’t know if it can work,” Alm said. “But it is an option that

can be considered.”

The national program is generally reserved for high

population areas with severe crime, Alm said.

His assessment didn’t sit

well with at least one person involved with law enforcement on Kaua’i, who

said the island has experienced a surge in serious crime this year after a

falloff the two previous years.

This year, Kaua’i has been rocked by four

murders and a brutal assault of a woman.

“We have rapes, abuse cases where

people are getting hurt and drug use,” the official said. “I would say we have

a crime problem here.”

Alm was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Rotary

Club of KAPA’A, hosted at the Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort.

Alm said he has

been in contact with Kaua’i County Police chief George Freitas and Prosecuting

Attorney Mike Soong about the federal program, and that it appears Kaua’i law

enforcement authorities have a solid working relationship with businesses,

organizations and residents to stem crime.

On O’ahu, the Weed and Seed

program has helped lift a cloud of crime over the Kalihi-Palama and Chinatown

areas, Alm said.

In the two years the program has been implemented, murder,

rape, robbery and burglary dropped by 59 percent, and drug use plummeted 71

percent from crime figures in 1997.

In the program, undercover Honolulu

Police officers buy cocaine and make arrests, Alm said.

Crime and drug use

is a way of life in the area, said Alm, noting in one case, a “grandfather from

Mililani came to Palama to buy crack cocaine for his whole family.”

So far,

150 dealers from Chinatown and Palama have been arrested, he said.

Law

enforcement authorities have won a major battle with the large number of

arrests, but the war against drugs continues in those neighborhoods, Alm

said.

“We aren’t naive enough to think we have wiped out drugs in this

community, but it is a lot less destructive to a community to have somebody

dealing drugs on the phone or with a pager,” Alm said.

Crack and cocaine

is the preferred drug of choice in those areas, although heroin,

methamphetamine and marijuana sales are more common than in any other

neighborhood in the state, Alm said.

Weed and Seed is administered by the

U.S. attorney’s office. Initiated in 1992, the program comprises 176 sites in

more than 150 cities in the nation.

The program is a collaborative effort

involving federal, state and city law enforcement and social service agencies

that work with businesses, non-profit and community groups and residents to

reclaim, restore and rebuild neighborhoods.

The strategy is to “weed out”

crime and to “seed” the community with “prevention, intervention and treatment

agencies and economic revitalization programs,” according to officials.

Plans are afoot to have the program implemented in Waipahu on

O’ahu.

Alm also noted his office and other law enforcement agencies:

l

Stopped violent purse snatchings committed against Japanese female tourists on

O’ahu. “There were hundreds of these robberies,” Alm said. Thieves “would steal

two cars, have a radio band in one and drive through tourist spots. The guy in

the back seat would grab the purse” as victims walked along a curb.

Some of

the women tourists who were victims suffered broken pelvises and legs “because

they rolled under the car,” Alm said. As many as 14 assailants are now serving

time in federal prison, he said.

l Shut down a major drug ring on Maui that

resulted in the arrest or apprehension of nearly 80 people, including Mexican

nationals. More than 260 federal agents and law enforcement officers and the

Coat Guard were involved in the operation.

l Cracked down on white collar

crimes, including public corruption cases in which crooked Hawai’i politicians

took money from campaign chests through kickback schemes. The resulting arrest

sent out a message that that type of activity won’t be overlooked by law

enforcement agencies, Alm said.

“We are convinced that most politicians are

honest, but every once in a while, if one isn’t and they get caught, it really

helps the new ones especially to realize that ‘I’ve really got to be careful,

that this is not my money, it is the public’s money,'” Alm said.

l Mounted

successful attacks against organized crime, fraud cases and drug sales

statewide through interdiction programs.

Alm said his office and federal

agencies should work more closely with county prosecutors and police

departments in the prosecution of crimes.

The federal criminal court system

works for victims and against criminals. Federal sentencing of criminals is

more severe, he said.

In the case of drug cases, Alm said, “we took drug

dealers to federal court and held three-quarters of the dealers, whether it is

a pound of ice or a 10th of a gram of ice (methamphetamine). They were

considered dangerous to the community by federal judges.”

Alm said his

office has been successful because it has worked well with a slew of federal

agencies, including the U.S. Immigration Service, Drug Enforcement Agency and

U.S. Customs Service, and state law enforcement agencies in the investigation

of crimes and prosecution of criminals.

Staff writer Lester Chang can

be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net