By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU‘E, Kaua‘i — Crime on Kaua‘i increased in the first half of 2000, and drug use may have been a major factor, said police chief George Freitas.
| Serious crimes down, police say
 Total number of Kaua‘i County index (serious) crimes.
|
| 1990 |
2,596 |
| 1991 |
2,376 |
| 1992 |
2,497 |
| 1993 |
2,346 |
| 1994 |
2,365 |
| 1995 |
2,637 |
| 1996 |
2,977 |
| 1997 |
2,849 |
| 1998 |
2,263 |
| 1999 |
2,076 |
| 2000 (prelim.) |
2,158 |
|
Source: Kaua‘i Police Department.
|
|
"Drugs obviously have something to do with it. Our vice officers reported in 2000 a 50 percent increase in the number of search warrants issued for drugs," Freitas said, responding to new statewide statistics that show increases for Kaua‘i in every category of major crimes.
All the counties had some increases during the first half of last year, leading to 10 percent statewide increases in major violent crimes and major property crimes.
Freitas said one part of the Kaua‘i increase was statistical in nature. Following an FBI audit of the county’s record-keeping, Kaua‘i police began listing serious family assaults that previously were listed among family abuse crimes as aggravated assaults.
That brought the six-month total for aggravated assaults from a single-digit number to 53.
In addition, Freitas said Kaua‘i’s numbers are small enough that individual criminals can make a big change in statistics. For instance, a string of burglaries in the K¯loa and Kilauea communities, which were solved, helped drive the number of burglaries to 274, up 19 percent from the previous period.
A car theft ring specializing in stealing and taking apart Hondas pushed car thefts to 34, up 36 percent.
Freitas said Kaua‘i’s crime statistics have been dropping by about 10 percent a year for the past three years, "just a tremendous decline.
"By the time we came out of 1999, we were at record levels, lower than when we started keeping these statistics in 1975," he said.
While there is now an increase, crime is still well below historic highs, he said.
In fact, in preliminary Kaua‘i Police Department figures for all of 2000, the year’s serious crime statistics are the lowest of any year of the past decade except for 1999.
One of the most frightening statistics is jump in the murder rate. Six people were murdered in 2000, compared to zero the previous two years. Two of the killings were associated with sexual attacks police have linked to a possible West Kaua‘i serial murder-rapist who remains unidentified.
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