CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / MAY 7 Sandy Beach Park is one of the areas in the pilot program for mobile video surveillance cameras. HPD officers assist people with filing a police report after their vehicle was broken into at the park.
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / MAY 7
Sandy Beach Park is one of the areas in the pilot program for mobile video surveillance cameras. HPD officers assist people with filing a police report after their vehicle was broken into at the park.
Video cameras mounted on at least four mobile security trailers will be used by the Honolulu Police Department to avert auto burglaries, thefts, vandalism and other crimes at popular scenic points in East Oahu.
As part of a multiyear, $64,000 pilot project that begins July 1, HPD will roll mobile video platforms — replete with flashing blue lights and possibly audio speakers — to parking lots close to the Makapuu Point Lighthouse lookout, Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline trails, Halona Blowhole lookout and Lanai lookout, near the Koko Head Shooting Complex.
The lookout sites are commonly visited by tourists and are 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 says.
To fight these crimes, HPD wants to 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 says.
But not all in the community desire more police surveillance in public areas.
“I don’t want to live in a society where we have government cameras all over the place,” said Hawaii Kai resident Natalie Iwasa during the City Council’s June 5 meeting.
In response, Council member Matt Weyer said he generally agreed with Iwasa but noted that “it’s a very common practice, and it’s for a very specific purpose.”
“I know a lot of our city parks have cameras, and when I was a prosecutor we had evidence from a camera for a strangulation case from Ala Moana that we wouldn’t have had if there wasn’t a security camera there,” he added. “Given that it’s for a very specific purpose, I think it’s appropriate.”
The Council voted to adopt the pilot program, under Council Chair Tommy Waters’ Resolution 64, which states that in 2023 alone 225 vehicle break-ins were reported at East Honolulu lookouts.
In May, HPD Maj. Brian Lynch told the Council’s Committee on Public Safety that “the majority of the victims for these crimes are tourists.”
But as far as HPD’s sought-after camera technology to catch suspected thieves or avert crimes, Lynch said it’s not anything new. “It’s the same as being used in Chinatown and in Waikiki,” he added.
The project’s main benefit is that HPD will not use city-owned equipment, he said.
“We’re going to lease them,” Lynch said previously. “And so, if they get damaged or stolen or whatever … it’s on the leasing company. … If it’s broken or damaged, they pull the old one out, and they bring us a new one that’s ready to go. So we don’t have to deal with the maintenance or the fixing or the repairing or any of that.”
Lynch noted recorded video footage would cover only daylight hours.
“Part of the lease is actually somebody sitting there watching (the footage), not one of us,” he said, alluding to HPD’s ongoing staffing shortage of more than 400 officers. “It’s somebody with this leasing company that we would be dealing with. That’s another attractive grab for us in the sense that it’s cheaper to have this person do that than it would (be for the police). And then there’s rules about us watching and stuff like that.”
HPD’s mobile camera program could eventually be applied to other spots around Oahu, he said.
The end date for the pilot project is set for June 30, 2028, “or 18 months after HPD or its designees begin overt video monitoring, whichever comes first,” the resolution states.
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