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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 11:55 a.m., Wednesday, May 22, 2002

HPD joins with FBI on crime task force

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

More criminals who rob banks, armored cars and tourists may face federal prison terms through the work of a task force teaming Honolulu police with federal law enforcement authorities.

Under the Honolulu Violent Incident Crime Task Force, one police lieutenant and seven detectives and sergeants will be deputized to act as federal agents. Lt. Raymond Quon, who heads the police robbery detail, said federal background checks on some of the team must be finished first, so the start date is uncertain.

The task force also will employ two FBI special agents, one full time and one part time, and an assistant U.S. attorney on a part-time basis.

The advantage to local law enforcement in some cases may be stiffer penalties, he said.

But the task force is being formed largely because terrorism threats since the Sept. 11 attacks have strained federal law enforcement, said Dan Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Honolulu. No additional money is allotted to any of the participating agencies, according to an agreement adopted by the City Council in April.

"FBI divisions have had to reallocate bodies toward the terrorism fight," Dzwilewski said. "Most of that movement of resource had to come from criminal programs."

These are the programs that investigate bank robberies, cases of bank extortion and violations of the Hobbs Act, a federal law aimed at those who hurt or potentially hurt interstate commerce. It sometimes is applied to crimes victimizing tourists or companies with interstate ties, too.

For example, suspects charged in March and April robberies that targeted pizza delivery workers are being prosecuted through the Hobbs Act.

Once the police are deputized they will take over such cases, gathering and presenting evidence to the federal prosecutors, Quon said.

The coordinated effort is seen as a way to identify the more serious violent federal offenses and prosecuting them in the most efficient way, Dzwilewski said.

"It's another way of protecting tourists from violent crimes," he said.

"Things are taken case by case, and we'll do an assessment to identify the most egregious violent crimes­ if it's an organized group, or a systemic kind of crime, extortions, kidnappings."