HONOLULU — To deter crime, the city’s use of overt video monitoring of the public is expected to grow if a new Honolulu City Council measure is adopted.
City laws already allow open video surveillance cameras from fixed locations in places like Waikiki and Chinatown, at city-owned buildings and on city streets and roads to detect traffic violations or to manage the flow of vehicle traffic.
But Bill 37 would amend existing city laws to allow video monitoring at fixed spots “in and around the city rail system for the purposes of the general prevention and deterrence of criminal activity.”
Under the measure, a designate of the council — or “responsible city official” — would be named to oversee aspects of the video monitoring of public activity along Skyline. In this case, that official would be the city transportation director.
Val Okimoto, chair of the council’s Committee on Public Safety, introduced the bill in June.
“Bill 37 aims to clarify the guidelines for overt video monitoring in public areas, emphasizing public safety while protecting citizens’ privacy,” Okimoto told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email. “The bill ensures that the public is aware of the presence of cameras and the use of data collection and holds the administration users accountable.”
According to council staff, the bill “introduces comprehensive guidelines to ensure that overt video surveillance in Honolulu is conducted responsibly, transparently, and with meaningful community involvement by implementing key improvements and procedures, including technological and operational standards, transparency and public notice, signage, and reporting.”
Review of Bill 37 — which passed its first council reading Wednesday — follows efforts to use police surveillance at other locations as well.
In June, the council adopted Chair Tommy Waters’ Resolution 64, which allows the Honolulu Police Department to mount video cameras on mobile security trailers to avert auto burglaries, thefts, vandalism and other crimes at popular scenic points in East O‘ahu.
As part of a multiyear, $64,000 pilot project that began July 1, HPD has rolled mobile video platforms — replete with flashing blue lights — to parking lots close to the Makapuu Point Lighthouse lookout, Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline trails, the Halona Blowhole lookout and the Lanai lookout, near the Koko Head Shooting Complex.
The lookout sites are commonly visited by tourists and highly prone to property crimes, according to HPD.
Although auto burglaries are seasonal — with more incidents occurring during the summer as visitors arrive to the island — on average, police receive about 50 car break-in reports monthly, HPD said.
HPD will lease portable trailers that feature cameras atop a mastlike pole. Video footage gleaned from the mobile cameras will be used to identify suspects. The cost to the city will be about $3,000 a month per security trailer, HPD said.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s office announced in 2023 that the first phase of the city’s new Chinatown security camera system upgrades is complete.
In September seven new surveillance cameras — placed at intersections in the hardest crime-hit areas of Chinatown — were not to be the last. Another set of upgraded cameras, to be manned by HPD, is scheduled to be installed later this year.
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 said.
By the end of 2024, the city said it plans to have 52 new security cameras covering every major intersection in the Chinatown district: from River to Bishop streets and from Vineyard Boulevard to Honolulu Harbor.
The estimated total 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.
However, not all in the community desire more police surveillance.
“To be clear, it invades the privacy of not just people who are doing things that might be illegal, it impacts every single person,” Jongwook “Wookie” Kim, legal director for ACLU Hawai‘i, told the Star-Advertiser previously.
He added that such technology — which has the ability to powerfully zoom in on people to photograph and record them — could have a chilling effect on 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.
