Posted on: Friday, June 1, 2001
Honolulu police teams cut car thefts
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Police responding to a surge in Honolulu property crime have halted an increase in auto thefts with a special task force, while a North Shore police team has reduced thefts from cars by half, officials said yesterday.
Detective Bruce Swann said evidence indicates every one of 69 persons arrested by the new Auto Theft and Commercial Crime (ATAC) team since from January to the end of April was involved in use of crystal methamphetamine.
Some 63 of those persons have been charged with crimes, while others are subject of continuing investigation, he said.
The ATAC unit was created at the request of Police Chief Lee Donohue in January in response to a 9 percent increase in serious crime on Oahu last year, as reported by the FBI in an annual report on Wednesday.
Using a patrol officer drawn from each district, and a core of detectives, the 12-person team used auto theft as a starting point to focus on suspects believed to be involved in a wide range of crimes in addition to stealing cars.
In many cases, cars were stolen only to be used in another crime and then dumped, Swann said.
But some cars were turned over to "chop shops" to be cut up for parts or reconstructed, he said.
Swann cited the case of David Cassidy, 27, who was charged yesterday with car theft, robbery, kidnapping, burglary, theft and possession of a machine gun in connection with a home-invasion case in Makakilo.
He also said Bernadette La'a, whose husband was killed in a shoot-out with police at the H-2 freeway in April, had come to the attention of the task force before the deadly encounter near Waipi'o Gentry.
"Commercial crime" refers to crime committed by persons for their livelihood, he said.
Detective Letha DeCaires, who coordinates the CrimeStoppers program, said ATAC's success suggests police can be more effective when focusing on targets identified by patrol units and intelligence, and investigated by detectives working directly with patrol officers.
Swann said auto theft, which increased 30 percent in 2000 compared with 1999, jumped another 30 percent from December to January of this year, but has been cut by 30 percent since that time.
Lt. Stanford Afong of the North Shore Beach Task Force said surveillance, intelligence and intense patrol along the North Shore reduced the average monthly number of thefts from vehicles from 102 to about 50 since January.
Afong said district commander Major William Gulledge created the task force by drawing on other units from within the district to try to battle the thefts that plague tourists and residents alike who park their cars along the area's highways and beaches.
One major crime category which declined sharply from 1999 to 2000 was murder, down from 37 to 20. But Brandon Stone, an aide to Chief Donohue, said the numbers are so relatively small that it is difficult to draw any conclusions from the statistics.
Murder on O'ahu hovers at around 30 a year, year in and year out, he said, with occasional exceptions like those in the past two years, but there is no clear reason for the changes.
The year 1999 was remarkable for Honolulu's worst mass murder in history, when Byran Uyesugi killed seven co-workers at a Xerox Company office.
